my headcanon I believe in so hard I forget it's not canon is that Charles didn't actually look like how his memories show he did when he died
what the Night Nurse is seeing and subsequently what the audience is seeing when she looks into Charles' memories is how Charles viewed that night. it's his memories, and memories are biased
when we see the memories in the attic, even when Charles is curled up under a blanket literally about to die, he just looks gaunt, tired, and a little woozy (btw this is NOT an attack on makeup artists what they do is amazing and I'm just building on that)
but we are told over and over that he died of hypothermia and internal bleeding. and I doubt that the rocks that were thrown at him did all that much damage- have you ever thrown something into water? it sinks slowly as soon as it hits the surface. those rocks weren't doing any damage to Charles anywhere that was under the water. so yeah, his 'friends' probably beat the shit out of him first and that's what caused the internal bleeding
but internal bleeding is typically from organs or brain damage and is often visible as mass, dark bruising. but you're telling me Charles had no bruising on him whatsoever?? he was bleeding internally enough that it's listed as his cause of death - not just a side note - it's part of the reason that he died. but no bruises on the face, none on the arms, no bleeding from the head or anything (we don't see his torso until after he dies so I have nothing about that)
Charles definitely felt fucking freezing so of course that's shown in his memories, of course he's gaunt and tired and cold - but the pain can just be passed off as the cold and he had something much more interesting to pay attention to: Edwin
I fully believe that we see those memories with Charles looking the way he does because his focus on that night looking back on it isn't that he was slowly bleeding and freezing to death; but that it was the first time he met his best friend, (and why would he want to remember all the gory details) and that's why he looks the way he does in his memories
'ao3 needs a like and dislike button'
what you need, my algorithm-rotten minded friend, is a grip
Crystal, Charles and Edwin are the broken, the beaten and the damned btw, in that order
you ever have just like, a really bad idea
anyways if you like bad things here’s a postcard
presented without comment
i lived bitch
about to paint a drawing please god don't let me fuck this up
i know they can't sleep, but i thought it would be cute sooooo i drew it ❤️❤️❤️