starmark | IC Inbox

That's a nice alternative to pessimism.

Long story short: I ran into a problem, stopped that problem, but now I have to do something with that problem.

the hell do you mean you ran into a problem

what happened

It's not important.

What is important is that I am very territorial of a meal I am not leaving behind the bookstore just so I can run upstairs for some mason jars.

That bullshit in Vandare is starting to trickle down in little bits to here and I wasn't having any of this Monsters Are The Enemy garbage tonight.

oh my god

are you serious

so you're calling me to carry a dead guy up the stairs for you

i'm not saying no i'm just saying are you serious

WHY WOULD I MAKE THIS UP????

so you can bring his corpse back to the apartment

and juice it

What else would I do with it? It's gross and I hate it but I'm not leaving it behind the bookstore.

You can have the rest.

Are you even doing that yet? I haven't seen you eat a thing.

i just haven't gotten hungry yet

i mean i've gotten hungry but what i eat pretty much fills me up

with the way i just started turning into this thing though i won't be surprised if one day i just wake up and can't get full unless i eat a guy

not

really looking forward to that

also i tried your stupid smoothies once and i can't believe i did that but here we are

I don't think I can say that I know anyone who does enjoy it but it's the nature of the beast for lack of a better term.

I pulled out most of what I have left of my teeth on this one too. I'm going to need some ice.

To add: Don't complain about my smoothies. They are all I have. You might like them if I started adding things to them to mask the Human Taste.

that was terrible

look just give me a minute i'll come down ok

did the guy at least attack you first

You're allowed to have weak one-liners and I'm not?

I did say he was the problem first. Just get down here and move him. We can work on specifics after. I will at the very least drag him to the steps.

my one-liners are great

and i'm just making sure jesus give me a break yare yare

Shut up and get downstairs.

[ Should Jotaro go downstairs, he will find his roommate at the foot of the building with a... Man of maybe fifty or so wound up in the latter half of Snakebutt for the purpose of just supposedly keeping him there. He did say he was territorial of this kill. It isn't doing any good because he is very, very dead via a visible chunk taken out of his shoulder near the base of his neck. A wound that is just sort of fizzing and oozing a mixture of shiny black which eats away up the side of his neck to his jaw. Rohan is looking at his nails, patiently waiting like he is expecting a hot date.

Ah yes. ]

[It takes him a little while, as promised, but down he comes, wings still kind of clunking a little all over the place but his balance at least much more adept as far as moving with them.

And sure enough, there's Rohan, and sure enough, there's...a corpse. Great.

Looks like a bad way to die, honestly.]

You just want me to haul it up the stairs?

["It". Not "him". For now he's going to just try having it be "it" and see how that goes.]

[ Rohan strives to make his kills as un-messy as possible. This one was easy with only a couple of bumps and bruises outside of the clear site where he got him in the neck. His tail uncurls from around its property and it is then that bones can be heard a-crunching and the man's limbs just sort of go jellylike and flop to the ground. Not only are all of his bones broken in the worst ways, but he's being actively eaten from the inside. ]

Yes. [ Rohan shows a touch of being shaken that comes ONLY in the form of a few quick blinks of his eyes glowing in the dark. He slithers past Jotaro, intending to chatter once they get up to the apartment. ] Be careful so it doesn't fall apart when you pick it up. [ And off he goes, leaving Jotaro behind. Hauling himself back up the stairs in a chore but he is managing with some well-practiced finagling of clawing the wall and the not often-used handrail until he can recede into the apartment. The door is left open and he slinks to the kitchen to fetch some clean jars.

Something isn't right. ]

[Christ. Now there's something that'd turn the stomach, isn't it. And it does turn his stomach, looking at this guy and how he's died and still...arguably...dying...

But it also doesn't bother him as much as he feels like it should. Seeing a dead person should bother him. Carrying a corpse around should bother him.

The gargoyle doesn't see anything out of the ordinary. Maybe that's what ends up rattling him — that there are instincts now that are telling him this is fine, normal, that this isn't a body but a hunk of meat, no different than anything else.

He thinks about bending to reach for it, maybe shucking it over his shoulder the way that a human would.

But then there's a moment of indecision, one that comes too easy and too familiar; he used to be able to simply wish for outcomes and his Star Platinum would somehow make them a reality, and now he wishes for this corpse to be up the stairs and before he knows it his wings are spreading wide, and with a light hop he's atop the body and digging in with his talons and gripping prey like this feels so natural that he wonders why he hasn't done it before.

He knows why, objectively. It's the gargoyle that wonders why, and doesn't have an answer.

It's a short flight up the steps, but gripping the body in his talons makes it an easy one, just a few wingbeats to ascend and then he's up to the landing, a little astonished and unnerved by how simple and instinctual the action really was.

He drags the body inside and shuts the door.]

Rohan.

[ Bearing witness to Jotaro's little hop-flap would have earned him a little halfhearted applause but Rohan is too interested in plucking up now clean and empty jars from near the icebox. Ones he has swiped from the cafe-- mason jars on a slightly larger scale. Big enough. It's going to take a few.

His tail swishes and sweeps along the floor, preoccupied until he hears the dull drag of weight entering the other room. ]

What? [ Rohan lazily replies as he reenters his workspace-- er... The living room. Himself, Jotaro, and the dead man all surrounded by his paintings and what their apartment has transformed into. He moves with his snake-brand fluidity to the unfortunate human who is leaking dark red fluid from his nose and the inner corners of his eyes. The way he reaches for the man's arm to drag him closer to himself, coiling up to just... Sit in the middle of the floor as if he were in a chair is all but difficult. Surely one leg would be crossed over the other.

There is a method to this. He's just going to do it in the house, aloof as ever, giving Jotaro a pointed look up from where he is holding that limp wrist.

Answer, please. ]

Are you gonna tell me what he did?

[It feels weird, being this close to a dead body like this. The gargoyle — he thinks it's the gargoyle, anyway, or at least hopes it is, wants it to be — is weird about the body. That's a meal, right there, and there's something about seeing it right in front of him like this that makes him want to perch on something, crouch and watch how this goes. It makes him want to grab it in his feet-claws-talons again.

It doesn't feel like him wanting it.

He distracts himself by watching Rohan instead, unaware that his own body temperature just ticked up by a few degrees, this time from some emotion other than anger or frustration.]

Did he jump you? Was he alone?

He was alone, yes. I'm not sure if I would have been successful if there had been more than one. [ He is confident and cocky but he isn't stupid. Je isn't seasoned enough at the naga thing to fuck up any more than one human at a time. ] He is one of those anti-monster guys from uptown. He came with his own pitchfork and everything. He's been studying Rabble-Rousing 101.

[ He huffs and haphazardly pulls the man up by the arm. Held high above his head, the act brings the man's face nearly nose to nose with his. ] He has a frame worth killing. Had... Has... [ Implying that he will be useful enough to keep him fed for a few weeks. Rohan's coo is bored and frustrated himself. It's like having to wash the floor or mow the lawn. A chore. ] Humans should know better than to look a naga in the eyes. They've lived here long enough.

[ Stating the fact, Rohan opens up his mouth. Fangs unpeel from the roof of it and he bites the juncture of his victim's neck and shoulder again for one more good measure. The ensuing fizzing noise fills the warm, quiet room all the while as his venom begins eating away at the bite again. Now bits and pieces of the surface skin and the veins he nailed before begin to bubble and pop. Mouth pulling away for him to stick a finger in the wound-- ]

He didn't land anything. All I lost were a few teeth through biting him. He didn't stand a chance.

[ A single blink has him staring across the way at Jotaro. He has taken note of the temperature change. He knows the baser temperature at this point and it has quite obviously risen. The question of 'What is it?' hangs there silently even as he rips his eyes away to gouge at the hole in his kill's neck again with his claws. ]

What would you have done? If he'd had — if there'd been more than one.

[It's ugly to watch, and the truth is he doesn't want to. Something else does, but his own will wins out and he turns his face away, watching the floor instead of the horrorshow.]

...

I'll look at your mouth if you want me to. To make sure it's not fucked up from it, or something.

[ It's not a horrorshow to him. It does need a second to cook anyway. ]

You can. [ Jotaro is no dentist and it's a little odd to say the least. He lets his new kill slump down back to the floor in front of him to ferment. ] The teeth are growing back fast enough. They're all fucky.

[ Fucky as in when he beckons Jotaro closer and pulls back one corner with his finger, the top and bottom lines where his molars usually would be have become incomplete rows of backward-facing spine-like teeth with gaps where the fresh ones were ripped out. They are set against the black backdrop of his gums and if Jotaro peers close enough, he will notice that his roommate's lips are starting to turn black under his lipstick turned patchy from his biting.

He's burning away the color in his lips, his hair is starting to get too long. He's a mess. Trying his best to hide the former under makeup and putting up with the latter by less frequent wearing of his stupid signature headband is all he can really do. ]

I don't know what I would have done if there had been more than one. We don't need to look at the what-if's, Jotaro. [ He stops prying open his mouth for that much to say. ]

Edited 2016-07-02 20:59 (UTC)

Fucky's a good word for it. Don't bite me.

[It's just easier to take careful hold of Rohan's head for his look, one hand underneath his chin to help keep it still, the other wavering like he wants to help tug back his lip himself but well aware that he probably will get a finger bitten off in the attempt if he takes the liberty of trying.

He's really not looking so good lately. And the rest of it adds up into an ugly picture — the terse words, the extra crabbiness, the little imperfections he's been trying to hide. He's seen that habit before, the bustling around and carrying on and never letting on. The last time it ended in a collapse and a time limit that resulted in the deaths of three of his friends.

He finds he doesn't know what to do with that. It's a feeling he doesn't like — like how the gargoyle doesn't like seeing meat on the floor and not having it in its claws, maybe — but that doesn't mean he knows what to do with it.]

How long has it been hurting?

[He doesn't bother to question whether or not it has. If he's wrong, Rohan will bite his head off, and if he's right, he'll...still bite his head off, probably, but at least they won't be fucking around with stupid lead-in questions when he can get right to the point with a better one.]

Since before just now, just this guy. I can tell that much.

[ He won't bite him. If anything, Rohan is feeling subdued. Sassy, but subdued. Jotaro’s concern is given its chance. ]

They have been like this for a little over a week. At this point, I am hard-pressed to say that I am in any way surprised by it. [ Again, he opens his mouth to allow the gargoyle a better look. His fangs still hang from the roof threateningly though Jotaro has nothing to be worried about. This time.

That last bit... ]

Just this guy? What do you mean?

Edited (autocorrect fuck off) 2016-07-02 23:34 (UTC)

I mean you hurt them biting him. But that wasn't the hurting I was talking about.

[He guides Rohan to tilt his chin a little higher, giving him a better angle on the roof of his mouth as he frowns at the sight before his eyes. A second or two later, he moves his thumb and smudges off part of Rohan's lipstick, intent on having a better look.]

I mean you don't look that great. Moreso than usual. Or maybe just moreso than you're trying to let on.

[ Rough as he looks, he's pretty adjusted. Give him that much. ]

I'm fine. [ He insists. ] I got messed up on the first round of fog goofiness, remember? The Fog Lady wasn't going to let me off that easily. She's a bitch.

[ What's happening to his lips is the same thing that happened to the inside of his mouth. He's burned them up enough by now that they are just healing with the color of his venom like a dye. He can pull off a black lip. There's no reason to complain. ]

She is making sure it is going to be as agonizing as possible in little, tiny ways. It's a game of whether I can keep up with it or not. [ A beat... ] There is no point in fussing.

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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