IC Inbox | ryslig

[starmark]

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.

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[starmark]

[It's the clunking around that he notices first, actually. That's the thing about getting used to having a roommate with a forty-foot snake tail on his lower half instead of a pair of feet: there's not really anything to clunk, because what he does is more like sliding or slithering over the terrain. So something is clearly up here, and when Jotaro wakes up from his nap, he's quick to ruffle up his (for once, hatless, because of a rare and divine miracle) hair and wander out to investigate, mentally steeling himself for an ugly surprise of the intruder variety.

What he gets, though, is an ugly surprise of a different variety: blood on the walls, a trail leading upstairs, and — when he darts up to Rohan's room with mounting apprehension once he realizes where the trail is actually leading — Rohan himself, knocked out on the bed with a pair of skinny chicken legs jutting out from his waist and an ass that's practically falling out of the suspender-reinforced pants it's been inserted into.

That's...not his snake roommate.

That's a human roommate.

...

God, he hopes he's had enough to eat recently, because the last thing he wants is to devour his guything in the worst possible way.]

...Rohan?

[Is he sleeping? Yes, Jotaro, you idiot, of course he's sleeping. But at least he's quiet about it, rather than just bellowing his uncertainty somehow.]

[manuscripture]

[ Rohan on his bed of quilts... Sleeping soundly and fitting just fine on top of all of them, he barely notices anyone coming up the stairs. It takes Jotaro speaking to get him to open his eyes. ]

Hm...? [ He's washed up since he changed back. The only remains of it are his former body and the blood tracks. He's sleepy, but otherwise alright and sans any kind of outward discomfort. ]

Good morning, Jotaro.

[ Er... Night... Whatever time it is.

In a manner similar to how he would swish the end of his tail, Rohan's feet flex at the ankle and his toes wiggle. Not totally sure of what to do with them yet. ]

[starmark]

...Wow.

[HE REMARKS, ELOQUENTLY, WHERE HE'S STANDING JUST INSIDE THE DOORWAY AND OBVIOUSLY OPENLY STARING. He has toes. He has feet. It's a little like witnessing a human being who just realized their cat has toebeans, except even moreso.]

You, uh. ...Wow, look at you.

[manuscripture]

[ Articulate as ever, Jotaro. ]

I'm sorry about the mess outside. I will get to cleaning it when I'm not so... [ He yaaaawns. ] Exhausted.

[ Rohan props himself up on an arm and tries to scramble one leg underneath himself, and then the other to sit on a heel with the other leg swung out in front of him. ]

It's a little jarring. It doesn't look too bad, does it?

[starmark]

...No, it doesn't look bad. It, uh. It looks a little bit like you're still remembering how to use your legs.

[That's probably not insulting, he hopes, when it's also presumably the truth. He starts making his way over, though, instinctively raising his body temperature to warm the room on his approach — but then catches himself and sinks it back down again, when it hits him that Rohan's probably been stripped of his affinity for heat along with his scales and tail.]

I can take care of it. The cleaning up. Can you walk, even, or...

[He hesitates.]

I can still carry you, you know, even if you're not...I mean, you'll have to figure out a different way of holding on, but that's not hard...

[manuscripture]

[ Rohan frowns a little, remembering that Jotaro's touch will likely burn. A lot. But he's gotten better at controlling it, right?

He reaches out a hand against his better judgment. ]

Here. Try giving me a hand. Just don't melt it off.

[starmark]

...Like when we were at the beach. And you were on the sand?

[He nods, moving over and double-checking his body temperature before taking Rohan's in his own. Assuredly, he's much warmer than any human would have a right to be; maybe under Rohan's touch he feels even a bit feverish, by mortal standards. But he's keeping rigid control of himself, and has no intention of making a mistake that might potentially hurt the bae Rohan, either.]

Take your time. Use me to support yourself however you need to.

[manuscripture]

[ Admittedly, he is a bit concerned when faced with a claw being extended his way. It's just Jotaro. His palm, at most, runs immediately sweaty but he does exactly what he did on the beach: pulling himself forward and haphazardly sticking one leg out whilst the other touches the floor. He balances... And follows with the other using Jotaro as an anchor.

Hobble, wobble... He stays up.

Frozen, but he's up. ]

I'm not on the floor this time. So... That helps. Tonight has been an adventure, let me tell you.

[ Bemoaning, he rolls his eyes and then looks right up. Jotaro's so... Tall... From here. ]

[starmark]

Hey. You're okay. I won't let you fall, don't worry about that.

[Almost as an afterthought, he brings his tail around in a slow sweep, half-coiling it around behind Rohan to act as a secondary bit of reinforcement, to help hold him up from behind as well as from in front.]

Does anything hurt? I saw the blood, but I figured that might be just the, um. ...Everything. You're not injured, though?

[manuscripture]

[ It isn't TOO hard for him to stay upright. There's the occasional wobble but if he leans he catches himself on Jotaro's tail for only a tap. He looks down to watch his feet, KNOWING THAT IS A BAD IDEA.

Forcing himself to look back up, he thinks and pays attention to his own body and what it's doing. ]

My hips mostly. Knees, ankles... The blood was from... That, over there. [ He cants his head over near the window where ALL of snakebutt has been temporarily abandoned. ] It turns out that I had to more or less crawl out of it.

I'm not in as much pain anymore. It hurt worse when the skin started to peel off. Otherwise, I'm uninjured.

[starmark]

...Why the hell are you standing up if everything from the waist down hurts right now?

[So says the world's fussiest boyfriend, fussing with worry over his newly re-legged bae.]

I'm serious, I'll carry you if you want.

[manuscripture]

Because I have a high pain tolerance and I should probably be walking so it DOESN'T hurt so bad.

[ The world's fussiest boyfriend has a point tho. ]

No pain, no gain right?

But you know I can't turn down you carrying me any other day.

[ Whoa, hold up he's tilting WAAAAAY to the left. Abort-- ]

[starmark]

[Oop. That sure is a listing former snake, right there. Good thing Jotaro's quick to move and get an arm in the way to brace him against, and also to keep him from tipping all the way over.]

Yare yare, it's like you haven't gotten your sea legs yet. Here, rather than trying to juggle you like this, I'm just going to have Star lift you off the ground until I can get a solid hold on you, okay?

[manuscripture]

[ This is so freakin' embarrassing. ]

I'm not a child, Jotaro. I have to figure this out sometime. [ He only has a month. His face is contorted in frustration. ]

Just-- Do what you have to. I want to be able to do this. I'm back at square one again like before...!

[starmark]

All right, all right. Calm down, let me just get this figured out here.

[It's only an instant before Star Platinum appears, erupting from the general vicinity of Jotaro's shoulder like Athena bursting forth from the head of Zeus. And it's much easier to manage a human being than it is a monster, so it's relatively simple for Star to get around behind Rohan and lift him up by the waist, with big gloved hands on either side supporting him in such a way that his feet are still touching the ground, but his legs aren't responsible for holding up his weight while he balances over them.]

Try that. To figure it out, I mean. Let Star help you with supporting your weight while you figure out your balance again.

[manuscripture]

[ He could pass for a tiptoeing ballerina like this. ]

What would we do without Star Platinum as my training wheels? [ Rohan huffs and wiggles his toes in the air before he finds his light bearings on the floor to step forward. It's easier this time. ]

I'm not saying that I thought this was going to be easy, but I'm glad that I thought of making three of my outfits from home to compensate. I wouldn't have to steal your pants.

[starmark]

You could've left that as just "what would we do without Star Platinum" and I'd have agreed with you then, too.

[Star stays with him, helping to keep him upright and supported while he figures things out; meanwhile Jotaro kind of gets out of the way a bit, and absently glances down at his own clawed, scaled hands — now a distinctly monstrous contrast to Rohan's.]

You wouldn't fit in my pants anyway. Where do you want to go from here, do you want Star to just walk you around a little, or have you got somewhere you need to end up?

[manuscripture]

I think I can handle it from here.

[ Rohan is already putting what weight he can on his feet. What a refreshing feeling it is. At first he is looking down again as if to watch himself move, and then he is looking all the way up again at the gargoyle he can no long see eye to eye with on the same level. ]

Do I look as different as I think I do?

[starmark]

...I guess...you kind of do and you kind of don't.

[He reaches carefully, taking painstaking care to avoid letting his claws get too close to Rohan's skin, but seeks to hold his face and stroke the side of his thumb up against Rohan's face up near the corner of his eye.]

I got used to you with the scales. And I guess I kind of...just didn't think too hard about the tail and everything. Or I guess, I thought about it, and it was there, but it was always a little different from you somehow. Like a Stand being a little different, even though it's a part of you.

Right now you just look like you. I'm not going to say I like you better or worse one way or another. But you look good. It's nice to see your legs again.

[manuscripture]

[ He hasn't been afraid of having Death Claws near his face before. There isn't a reason to start now. ]

It's nice to HAVE them again. I'm just happy it didn't turn into an 'I throw up on myself and melt' thing again. I feel better for now. And I'm glad that you--... [ Hold up. Not gonna get sentimental because he can't forget something: ]

Remember when we talked about the cave you and Josuke explored? What would you think about going back there? I was telling Josuke about the time you and I talked about going hypothetically out to sea and it came up.

I want to see it.

[starmark]

Yeah, I think we can all be glad that you didn't throw up on yourself and melt, that's for sure.

[However. As much as he would like to stay on the topic of Rohan and his everything, his interest in THE CAVE ends up taking precedence.]

...Really? You want to go see it for yourself?

[manuscripture]

[ They could go back to talking about his everything in a minute. ]

Yes. I want to know what it brings to the table about Ryslig. A keener eye might be able to dig up some mysteries for solving. Plus, I can draw what I find. The park and the lake are getting old. [ Anything to sound more dramatic and needy. ]

Is a pirate cave not romantic enough for you?

[starmark]

The shipwrecks are really cool. And we might even find a skeleton or two if we dug around some. And there's something weird about the rocks that shield it from view from the outside, it's like they're positioned intentionally to make things as difficult as possible.

[Or they're magic and they move. But he didn't really catch that at the time, being more preoccupied with other Concerns.]

The only thing is it'd be a lot of wilderness camping, it's not like there's a hotel there or anything. You're okay with that?

[manuscripture]

That WAS something I considered, believe it or not.

[ Man, fuck sleeping outside. ]

I was thinking of maybe waiting to go until I get my snake body back. Cold as it may be, I stick to things better when we are navigating.

[ He sticks his hands on his hips. ] What, you don't think I can handle camping??

[starmark]

...You want to stay home and enjoy the leg thing while it lasts. I get it.

[He smiles faintly, the hint of a grin playing about the corners of his mouth as the amusement washes over him.]

I think you can handle anything. The question is how much complaining am I going to have to listen to while we're at it.