starmark | IC Inbox

I don't know what I need, Jotaro. Or what I'm going to do about it.

...i know

but you've got me either way

you know that, right

Yes.

Come pick me up at 4am.

I need time alone. We can speak then.

ok

i'll be there. count on it.

The door will be unlocked for you and I will be in the back room.

See you.

[And sure enough, at a little before 4 AM, our hero the stargoyle comes skimming down through the sky and lands at Ebony Threads, letting himself in and quickly closing the door shut again behind him.]

Rohan? It's me.

[Considering the troubles the shop has had in the past, it's probably for the best that he announces his presence immediately, he figures.]

[ Rohan is exactly where he said he would be-- in the back, calling to Jotaro from beyond the curtain. ]

Back here, Jotaro. [ Seated on the front desk, there is a white box pulled open whose innards of tissue paper have been spilled out with the cyan ribbon which held it shut. It's empty.

Behind the curtain, the naga is in a familiar pose with one of his paintings. Too many brushes in one hand, his tail holding the fancy slat of wood he has been mixing them on. On the canvas itself is a hastily done real-life speedpaint of none other than the artist himself. The key difference between painting and any of his little drawings is that Rohan has legs instead of Snakebutt to complete one of his absurd ensembles with Horrifying Pants. A whole mess of detail has been put into where the painting's foot is flexed at the heel, pointing the toe of a bright yellow shoe toward the floor and beyond. It takes the eye up to his willowy knees that used to be what supported most of his weight.

It's like looking between two pictures of the same person years apart. On the windowsill sits a brand new hand-blown wineglass with a frosted finish in a cool tea hue. ]

I needed to be alone. Thank you for understanding. [ Barring Yuzu who just shOWED UP TO BE NICE. ]

I still don't know what I am supposed to say or feel.

[He tosses a peek into the opened box before heading through to the back room, eager to see what Rohan is doing.

The subject of the painting doesn't escape his notice. It makes an immediate and dramatic contrast, the perfect similarities from the waist up, and then the shattering dissonance from the hips down.]

Is that one for me?

[It's not really serious; just a light opener to conversation, an acknowledgement of the art that Jotaro knows is the most important thing in the world for Rohan.]

You know I'm not going to try to tell you what's right or wrong...right?

Only if you want it to be. [ Rohan shrugs his shoulders with no real inflection in his voice telling him a yes or a no. He's right-- Acknowledgment of Rohan's art means more to him than anything else here.

And yet... ]

I know. But I also know that you want to. Don't tell me that you don't want to say something about it, or to give your opinion to my face. I know you better than that.

Tell me what is on your mind.

[He comes to a slow halt, arms hanging strangely at his sides like he isn't entirely sure what to do with them; what he wants is to keep moving forward and ultimately wrap them around Rohan, but he doesn't, in favor of just kind of standing awkwardly there instead.]

...I think that right now you want to kill him because he hurt you. Not because of the rest of it. I think...you hate the way he made you feel right now, and it feels like if you take it out on him, that will go away.

I don't think it will.

[ One by one, Rohan sets down his palette with his tail, followed by each brush in his hand finding a home on or near the easel. Once his hands are free he picks up the glass from the windowsill. ]

How do you think I am supposed to make it go away? [ He sips away at his glass. ] No matter how much I dislike someone, I would never go out of my way to betray them. Josuke is no exception to that rule. I set a lot of things aside to coexist with him here when I didn't have to.

I'm not going to cry myself to sleep because of what he did. I am going to take it as personally as I need to. I despise the way he made me feel. It's reminding me of why I never trusted him in the first place. [ After another sip, he offers the colorful glass out toward Jotaro. He'll know what's in it. ]

He threw the inkling of forgiveness I was beginning to feel back into my face. After all of it, he still hasn't told me WHY he made the decision he did. Just pity-party garbage about how stupid he was. That doesn't help me.

Edited 2016-09-25 02:30 (UTC)

[He takes the glass, spending a second glancing everywhere except at its contents, and seems to hesitate before ultimately reaching a decision in favor of the inevitable. A second later, he's drinking, from the opposite side of the glass as Rohan's been using.]

Maybe he doesn't know.

[He closes his eyes, still not looking at the glass.]

I'm going to talk to him. I have a feeling he'll tell me what he does know, if I ask him the right way.

He doesn't know why he did it, you mean? It sounds like a simple thought process to me.

[ Unconvinced, the naga wants to reach out again for either the glass or Jotaro's hand but does neither. ]

The thought process being: Don't rub elbows with a mass murderer. I don't know what's so hard about that. If you hear anything from him that might convince me to change my mind, spin it with all the gusto of a gospel choir.

[ A beat. ]

Miss Hiiragi brought me new wine glasses... She just left. [ He points to where he has the other three set out in the light around one of his black-filled mason jars. There is the teal one in Jotaro's hand, then a fiery orange one, a royal purple, and an emerald green. The last item between the glasses is a vintage perfume bottle sealed with a wax-covered cork. ]

Aren't they nice?

[ Is he trying to change the subject? ]

...I guess that explains the box I saw on the counter. Where'd she get these? They're nice.

[He idles a minute, taking another few sips before returning the wineglass to Rohan again.]

I've talked to her now. She said you painted her, she was the blue and red gargoyle?

[ He nods. ]

That's her. She's a firecracker-- pun not intended. [ Wew. ] Her timing was less than idea but I suppose I appreciated her company for once. That bottle over there...

[ He uncoils and leaves roughly half of himself still by the window to fetch the bottle. ] This is a wound sealant. She said that it works on everything from shedding scales to a slashed jugular.

She is usually awful to me. It's mutual most of the time. I don't know why she felt like extending kindness when all I did was put her crazy ex in his place when he impersonated her on the network.

It's like Opposite Day around here. [ He picks up his head to look over Jotaro's face. Hopefully nothing has gone opposite with him either. ] I don't like it.

I don't feel like this. Ever.

I think that's exactly she felt like extending kindness.

[And now at last he makes his way over, making his palm go pleasantly warm before it makes contact with Rohan's skin and scale near his shoulder.]

Do you feel like...you know. Being close to me, for a while?

[ He doesn't freeze up like he normally would at being touched a little suddenly. There is no start in his shoulders or his tail and he simply looks across the way with his eyes focused more on Jotaro's cheek or over his shoulder as usual. He might be in better control of every other 'power' he has but the petrifying people thing doesn't go away.

CAN HE EVEN PETRIFY SOMETHING THAT IS ALREADY TECHNICALLY A ROCK??? ]

Are you asking for a hug? [ Since that word is VERY out of Jotaro's vocabulary. Snakebutt is already sliding across the floor a thousand feet away from himself, making the executive decision to make lumps of coils around the gargoyle's feet. ] I would like that. [ Rohan doesn't wait for an answer and slowly lurches forward to not really embrace Jotaro as much as he sort of sets his forehead between his chest and his shoulder. He can stare there instead as the rest of him hugs at his ankles. ]

I have a question. And don't make fun of me for it. I'll kill you too.

[ that's the spirit, rohan. ]

I'm sure I can manage to hold back the urge to make fun of you, no matter what it is. Go ahead.

[He says, as he completely ignores the question of whether or not this is a hug entirely, in favor of focusing on the important part, which is gathering Rohan in and setting his personal body temperature to "low gentle heat", which makes him sound more like a clothes dryer than a gargoyle.]

I'll listen, whatever it is.

[ That phrasing isn't comforting?? He takes Jotaro's blunt weirdness for what it is. He's awkward and not as well-adjusted to conversation as his counterpart back home. It has its charm in small doses. Grain of salt, etc. ]

When you say it like that, how could I possibly be worried? [ He rolls his eyes tiredly and still does not look up. Talking right into his shoulder. ]

Do you feel the same way that I do? About--... [ This is so stupid and he knows it. After his conversation with Josuke during their sleepover, he feels moderately compelled to ask based on lack of restraint. ] You know...

About...?

[The problem, he thinks to himself, isn't that he can't figure out how to finish that sentence; on the contrary, it's that he can think of entirely too many ways to do it. Do you feel the same way I do about me? About this? (About Josuke, possibly, but that doesn't seem like it's a point Rohan wants to focus on all that much right now.)

He runs his hands down Rohan's back, skimming the warm palms over the planes and ridges of his spine.]

...I think so. I don't know if it's exact — I don't have any way of knowing that. But...I think it's pretty close.

About the us situ--... [ You know what? That's acceptable. The answer he gets is good enough for him when he absolutely has to remind himself of who he is talking to. He shouldn't need to remind himself anymore. That falls on him. Rohan turns his head, setting his cheek to the warmth there that he can feel is making himself sort of sleepy.

Sleep?? A riled-up Rohan winding down??? ]

I'll take 'pretty close'. Anything concrete will do after today.

[ On a sigh, he shifts with a nod. A sensation in his shoulders has him running cold(er) for a split second that prompts the rest of him to squeeze up--... When he relaxes, his scales begin to shift colors unbeknownst to him. The black patches have bloomed into splotches of dull, pastel green from his shoulders to his tail. They might run colder under Jotaro's hands for a moment. Once they have changed completely, they assume their normal temperature again. ]

You wouldn't lie to me.

Yeah. I thought so.

[He, too, adjusts slightly, watching as color ripples through Rohan's scales — green this time, rather than the purple he'd seen before, and it makes him wonder what might be causing the difference between the two — and adjusts his body temperature in response to the brief flickers of chill when he feels them.]

You're turning colors again.

[And maybe that's not really relevant, but it's easy to say, and every word comes heavily-laden with unusually deep affection. Jotaro, under normal circumstances, is usually the furthest thing from open with his feelings, but this time there's no mistaking them — and, as usual, they're coming in a different language than the spoken word.]

I like us. ...This. I don't have to be able to find the right words for what it is to know that it's what I want.

[ I like us. ]

I like us too.

[ It's all he feels he needs to reply with. The more concise they are, the better they function together overall. One of them is wordy, the other is not. Meeting in the middle works out.

Rohan Turns his head and straightens up without pulling too far. His arms have turned green. He treats it like he has seen it before. ]

I'm tired. That's what it's telling me. [ He implies that there are a few more colors with that. ] I've overworked and I need to go to bed. [ Now he HAS to admit it when his own scales are going to out him. His gaze hops to Jotaro's face. ]

Shall we?

You turn green when you're tired? It looks good on you.

[Soothe, soothe. One of his hands slips back around and comes up to rest against Rohan's cheek, the rough pad of his clawed thumb skimming gently at the corner of his mouth.]

But you're right, I'd better get you home. You can fall asleep on my shoulder on the way, if you want.

[Given the lilt in his voice, that's not an outcome he'd mind all that much, or even to begin with.]

Are we taking the glasses and things too? Or am I just taking you?

[ The day Jotaro starts to mind carrying him is going to be a rough day. Hauling himself into town in the morning is hard enough!

His eyelids falling to the half, Rohan nods shallowly. ]

Green has always looked good on me. [ He only half-jokes. Jotaro will find the hand on his cheek covered with a green one. ]

Just take me and the bottle. That might be useful to keep around the house... [ IN CASE OF GOUGE-RELATED INJURIES... ]

Kiss me and let's go.

IC Inbox | ryslig

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

if u wanna action this go on ahead friend

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, THIS IS JOTARO. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 019.20.118.16 * THIS IS JOTARO has joined 019.20.118.16 <THIS IS JOTARO> okay i'm typing now what <THIS IS JOTARO> delete what i just said <THIS IS JOTARO> delete what i just said <THIS IS JOTARO> delete everything i just said <THIS IS JOTARO> make this an automated messa <AUTOMATED REPLY, DO NOT RETURN>** This is Jotaro. Whatever you want, hurry up and tell me already.