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.

Comments

[starmark]

what couple of other things?

[manuscripture]

Superficial ones. Your clothes and how you speak. Normal things.

I'm going to pack up and come home. I want to draw.

[starmark]

do you need me to come pick you up?

want me to i mean

i know you don't need it

if u wanna action, im down to action

[manuscripture]

I don't need it but you can. It's been a while.

I will be outside the tailor shop.

⇒ action

[starmark]

[The unspoken words there are if you want. Rohan doesn't need a pick-up, but he can if he wants.

As it turns out, he wants.

So, with surprisingly artful swooping grace, he launches himself out of the window and soars through the air over the city, navigating via a bird's-eye view until he comes across the tailor shop — and, indeed, the place where Rohan is waiting.

His landing is smooth without being graceful. He simply drops easily, going from soaring to standing in a matter of seconds — and then there he is.]

...Hi.

[manuscripture]

[ It's nice to not have to drag all of his things out of the shop with him. Just his bag with his computer and a few other whatzits he keeps with him at all times. All of the finished paintings are locked behind the door as he closes up and slinks out under the awning.

There he is indeed. ]

Your landings still need a little work. [ Rohan says, casting a backward glance to the CLOSED sign on the door. He has to make sure. ]

Sorry for taking longer than half an hour to cut the conversation off. We got caught up. Shall we?

[starmark]

I'll get better with practice. Want a ride?

[Regardless of what the answer ends up being, he extends one clawed hand for Rohan's bag and waits in open offer. Whether it be flying or walking (or slithering), the impulse to lighten his companion's load is automatic and natural.]

Either way. It's up to you.

[manuscripture]

[ It is just as automatic for him to hand over his bag as it is for him to get the offer.

The second offer is tempting. ]

If you don't drop me, I don't see why not. [ He's visibly skeptical, cocking one eyebrow and half-wrinkling his nose.

He isn't as light as he used to be............ ]

[starmark]

You don't seriously think I'd drop you, do you?

[He swings the bag onto his shoulder, adjusting it with practiced ease to keep it clear of his wings, then turns his attention to Rohan himself.]

Take your pick. Back, arms, or talons. Whatever's going to be easiest for you.

[manuscripture]

[ Oh, this decision is challenging. He looks Jotaro up and down, head to toe. ]

Not intentionally.

[ He points at the gargoyle's wing over his shoulder. ]

I don't want to get in the way of those, but I also don't want you carrying me with your feet like you just killed me.

[starmark]

I wouldn't drop you, period. Intentionally or not.

[By process of elimination, that leaves arms. So, all right. That's easy enough; he's hoisted Rohan plenty of times that way, anyway.

The difference this time, though, is that there's more care in the lift, more attention paid to getting him arranged; he's familiar enough with the way that Snakebutt behaves to make an educated guess about what it'll do if he prompts it to cling, and so in short order he's got Rohan balanced against his chest, leaving him the dignity of staying mostly upright while guiding his snake tail to coil securely around the purple and gold scaling of his own torso and abdomen.]

Comfortable?

[manuscripture]

[ Boy, does Snakebutt know how to cling. It's all automatic-- as much as Rohan would like to believe that he is the one making the decision to wrap himself around Jotaro's middle. They both know that is a lie no matter which way they slice it. Enough of it trails off near his feet and almost on the ground.

He can't fit it all unfortunately. Oh well.

Rohan keeps his arms crossed at his chest for the time being. Grumping in Jotaro's general direction and basically right in his face. ]

I'm not going to weigh you down and make you pull a header into the ground, right?

[ HAVE SOME FAITH. ]

[starmark]

You're not usually this crabby. Is something bothering you?

[He keeps it light, more of a tease than anything resembling a criticism, and carefully adjusts his balance a bit before bending his knees and stretching out his wings in preparation for a launch.]

Just hang on. Let me do the rest.

[manuscripture]

[ Rohan huffs a cold breath in Jotaro's face. ]

I'm not crabby.

[ Actual Offense to that needs to be taken. Please understand.

He is jostled just enough by the change in weight to definitely throw his arms around the gargoyle's neck Merely Out Of Reflex. HE'S NOT WORRIED. NO. ]

Just GO.

[starmark]

[And they certainly do Go.

If there's one thing he's made very sure to practice in his time spent learning to fly, it's how to get himself into the air in a hurry. What's strange is that there was no one with him that night, when he'd made most use of the sort of move he's utilizing naturally here — it used to be his Star Platinum manifested in his legs, not a gargoyle's power, that launched him into the air and sent him hurtling through space. There's no one to know that that's where he learned it, save him.

But it's what makes the most sense, so that's what he does; he dips down deep and then leaps, and they hurtle up into the sky like a falling elevator in reverse, and his wings spread and the air catches and then they're off, skimming over the rooftops through the night.]

Sometimes I don't think I'll ever get used to this. What a city looks like from above, instead of from the ground looking up.

[manuscripture]

[ He screams. He straight-up screams. Not in the comedic way in a falsetto one would see on TV, just a hitch in his voice that is a little higher than usual. A gasp and a yelp he snaps his teeth around to stifle.

He hasn't been able to walk in MONTHS, much less fly without-- ya know --an airplane EVER.

The kite-like part of his tail flapping in the wind is just plain silly. Wiggling, it finds one of Jotaro's legs and tightly wraps around it. Rohan's eyes go wide as he forces himself to look down... ]

In the good way or--? It's-- [ Ahem. ] Different...

[ It's actually pretty nice. He's having a hard time looking back up from it. ] This is just how it looks at nighttime.

[starmark]

I wouldn't say it's a good way, exactly.

[jotaro there is no need to be a Debbie Downer right now]

I fought a guy in midair, once. That's what it reminds me of.

[okay, so aladdin he is not. thanks jotes. thanks.]

Listen...even if it doesn't feel like it, I can tell the gargoyle is good at — what I mean is. Its instincts...they're designed for managing...things...in midair. Controlling movements. I can tell that it's managing you right now. I'm not going to drop you. You're exactly where you need to be.

[manuscripture]

Way to kill the mood.

[ Bemoaning the grim explanation of why he doesn't think the view is a good thing.

He's going to nerd out in midair too. Something about this should be less serious than it is........ ]

You're making it so clinical. [ Rohan rolls his eyes, clenching them shut suddenly. ]

Do you have any other physics lessons, Doctor Kujo?

[starmark]

[Wrapped around him the way he is, there's absolutely no way he could hope to hide the way he stiffens up, just a touch, at that particular endearment of nomenclature.

Don't call me senpai, Rohan had said himself, earlier. Evidently the distaste for names like that doesn't necessarily run both ways...]

That's not a physics lesson. It's a biology lesson. The gargoyle is an animal, it's predator behavior.

[Oops. Speaking of clinical.]

...Have you ever heard of an Immelmann turn?

[manuscripture]

[ oh my god whatever.

Rohan draws no attention to how he can feel the slight change in how he is nestled in place.

Hm.

It's cold up here. The closer he is, the less cold he becomes. That's just a fact they have both come to accept. ]

Is THAT a physics lesson?

[ HE'S NOT SURE HE WANTS IT ]

[starmark]

It's an aerial maneuver used by flying aces in World War I. It's the fastest way of turning a hundred and eighty degrees in space, while in midair.

[Jiji may be the pilot of the family, but that doesn't make him any less interested in aircraft. Or in aviation history, for that matter.]

I could do one. But you might scream again.

[manuscripture]

Are you trying to kill me? Is that what this is?

[ His hand briefly motions in front of Jotaro’s face before that arm is back around his neck again... pulling himself a little tighter against the other man in case he's feeling wicked. ]

You are going to do it anyway. I KNOW you.

[ That's a bold proclamation. ]

[starmark]

Well. If I don't, then that means you're wrong, doesn't it?

[He tilts his head in Rohan's direction, just enough that the gleam in his eyes is unmistakable.]

Kishibe Rohan-sensei, wrong. Perish the thought.

[And that's the warning he gets, before Jotaro's hold tightens protectively around him and they go swooping up in a classic demonstration of the maneuver described: first looping upward the full hundred and eighty degrees before sweeping end over end in a half-barrel roll that takes them from upside-down to upright in a single smooth motion.]

[manuscripture]

Eat me--

[ Before he can consider the word 'figuratively' to follow up, he is suddenly very, very upside-down and very, very nauseous when he realizes it. He likes experiences as much as the next guy and craves what near anything feels like. There ARE some lines. He does NOT scream but he DOES yelp again, his mouth staying open in a defensive sneer which bares his fangs and is trying to scare... something. The whole concept of the AIR threatening him provokes him enough for a loud, breathy HISSSSSS. ]

Where did you even LEARN that??

[starmark]

I practiced it. Just because I'm flying with dragon wings instead of airfoils doesn't mean the physics is any different.

[But in accompaniment to that hiss, there's a soft rumble — amusement deep in his throat that bubbles up in the form of a chuckle.]

I won't do it again. But I've still got you, see? You're all right. I've got you.