manuscripture | IC INBOX / BUSINESS CARD ( ARCHIVE AS OF 12/13 )

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this is gonna be used for shitposting

IC INBOX / BUSINESS CARD ( ARCHIVE AS OF 12/13 )

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[ Somewhere around town-- at the bookstore, the Tomoe-Kaname Bakery, attached to posts and notice boards --you find a small white notecard. On it is printed a little message and some numbers in ornate lettering. If you look closely, it reads the following: ]

Rohan Kishibe, Mangaka & Visual Artist
Owner Pro Tempore of Ebony Threads Tailor Shop
Highly Experienced.
Commissions & Advertising For Hire
Pay Negotiable.
Contact At: 512.66.730.91 for inquiries
Castle Lüvchaque - Directly North of Bavan per appointment ONLY.

(( feel free to use this as an action-based prompt too. any random interactions will MOST LIKELY take place in the form of walk-ins at the tailor shop unless it's pre-planned. just drop a starter in here! ))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

... A few of my friends didn't.

[ Important ones, by the way she says it, but her tone, her volume suits the atmosphere. The shop is done up in dark colors, and with night outside, it's a dim, quiet scene, and Kishibe... he's different, too. The headband shes seen him wear both times before is missing, and his face is drawn with fatigue. The way he moves — it's too rigid for a naga. His body moves like one of those wooden-joint snakes, and she could almost hear the click-clack of the carved segments smacking together for mimicked movement. She's lived with Yuya this whole time, after all; she knows what's unusual for that body type.

She turns a little, careful of her claws, and unfolds her hands from beneath her wings. I don't know if you want to hang around — that's not the same thing as you need to leave. It's not even please go.

She doesn't particularly like the guy, but she isn't the kind of person who goes out of her way to leave others in suffering, either. ]

You look... [ Terrible. Stressed. Like someone died. ] ... troubled.

It has been a long night.

[ He doesn't want to indulge her with too much information. ]

I'm trying to finish a painting in the other room. I have--... [ His hands finally smooth over the box. ] ... Hit a bump in the road I hadn't expected. One HELL of a bump in the road.

Take a seat if you'd like. [ Inviting her to sit on one of the stools at the checkout counter while he toys with the box. ] Someone I... Care about did something terrible. Terrible to me.

[ Already the visit isn't going the way she expected — he hasn't insulted her once. The invitation is therefore one she doesn't turn down. A nod to indicate she'd heard, then a careful trot to the proffered seat. Her hands settle on her knees, and she watches, and she listens.

He's the kind of man who might get finicky (pissy) about small things and details, she thinks, but the mood here seems different. A bigger deal than burnt curtains, that's for sure. Still, in a place like this—]

Something terrible? [ Of course that's the point she focuses on; as for the box, it has some heft of weight to it, but not terribly much. There more than one piece inside, whatever it is, but they seem evenly distributed. She presses on. ] Like... physically?

[ She hadn't seen any injuries, and he doesn't smell like blood, but... ]

Or do you mean... a betrayal?

Betrayal is the right word.

[ He keeps inspecting the bow as a distraction. ]

There is a person here from my home. An awful person who has killed many innocent people. My frie--... [ Solid hesitation. ] Josuke helped get rid of this person back at home. Erased. Killed him. Saved the lives of women in our town and set the soul of someone I knew to rest after her years of being bound to our world as a restless spirit.

[ It all sounds pretty bonkers. ]

That person showed up here with the last flock of new humans. We had an altercation-- we both did with him. Josuke swore to me that he would be rid of him just like I had. He could have killed both of us due to situational circumstances that day. I learned that Josuke has since been speaking to him on friendly terms and making deals with him to help him. [ Taking piece of the ribbon in his fingers, Rohan pushes his claws through the thin fabric. ]

People say that I'm the snake here, Miss Hiiragi. I'm far from the one with the cleanest hands. The fact of the matter is that this is more personal than either of them think it is.

[ His eyes shift Yuzu-ward finally. ]

I don't take kindly to people who go behind my back.

[ The story starts awful — and, yes, the ghost inclusion makes her eyes widen a little more than simply a murderer from my hometown did — but only gets more so as he goes on. There's an uncomfortable twist in her stomach, a clench to her teeth.

She has no love for Kishibe, but when he looks her way, there's a fire of offense in her eyes. ]

Why would he be comrades to someone that despicable? [ To kill here is unavoidable; all of them are forced to do unforgivable things by this world. To do those things before... and to treat someone like that as a friend... ] If he knows what he's done...?

He claims-- [ And Rohan STRONGLY emphasizes 'claims' as a keyword here. ] --that him and Kira had a bargain. Josuke could enact his revenge by trying to rid him of his monster parts, therefore torturing him.

My computer is in the other room and wasting your time with exactly what has been said is not what I feel like doing tonight. [ He should have bailed out to back home a long time ago. In the same vein, he has no love for Yuzu but spilling to someone he isn't particularly close to but still trusts to keep her trap shut might be what he needs. ]

Let's say that I received two different stories regarding what happened. That Kira stated that Josuke was keeping a secret from me and Josuke said that he could explain when I called him on it.

[ A beat. ]

I have always found Josuke to be a liar and a thief and someone who cannot control his temper over what he should be doing with his head. He has almost burned my house down. He has betrayed my trust and tried swindling me out of my money. All on the past... I was willing to set it aside here and I did. However... This takes the cake.

I don't expect you to understand any of this. It's my problem to deal with and I plan on erasing Josuke next week if he has the balls to face the consequences.

[ Trusting his judge of someone else's character straight through isn't wise, when she doesn't know him particularly well, so his assessment of this Josuke person has to be taken with a grain of salt.

Though, Kira — doesn't she know that name from somewhere? She scowls, trying to recall, but Kishibe keeps talking. He's right: there's no way she can understand his situation. Not knowing the full details from his side, or anything about those other people involved. It has nothing to do with her.

She folds her arms against her knees, leaning forward, expression still thoughtful. ]

This is a lot worse than everything before. [ Agreement. It's a weirdly civil conversation, when neither of them are attacking the other. ] And he broke his promise, didn't he? I mean... if that guy was brought here, then killing him wouldn't stick, but...

[ She frowns, and shakes her head. ]

Betrayal is right. If you were involved from the start, he shouldn't have hidden it from you.

I'm not killing Josuke because I hope it sticks. I'm doing it for closure. He deserves it.

It's the principle, Miss Hiiragi. [ He should probably open the box... Which he goes about doing. Still talking: ]

I don't know what I'm going to do with Kira. I have an idea... But I'm not going to act upon it until I'm sure of what I'm planning and if it will be worth it in the end. [ Like, he's being awfully nonchalant about this. ] Jotaro will protest to me killing Josuke. I don't really care. His uncle screwed me over in a way no one has ever done so before.

[ He uses one claw to tug the lid open. ]

Pardon my lack of fanfare.

[ She shakes her head. ] No, I meant him killing Kira—

[ But she stops, frowning and scowling once more. ] That name...

[ Focus on that has her distracted, so it takes her a moment to catch that he's addressing her directly once more. There's a pause, but once she catches up with the moment she waves her hand for dismissal. ]

It's fine. I wasn't sure your tastes, so you might not like them anyway.

[ Once he gets the box open, it's not really all that extravagant a gift: a set of four glasses, separated from one another in wrapped tissue. Each are a translucent swirl of color, though in different parts of the color spectrum: this one in fiery reds and oranges, that one in cool teals and blues, and so on. They're probably more impressive in better lighting, but they're clearly made from blown glass, each unique.

There is a fifth object, though, in the center: an old-fashioned perfume bottle, also glass, closed with a glass stopper and roughly sealed with candle wax. It's filled with some sort of clear liquid, thicker than water and thinner than syrup, but it's hard to tell if the strange prismatic break of color is a property of the fluid or its container. ]

[ Careful to not shred the tissue as easily as he had with that little part of the ribbon, Rohan picks out one of the glasses upon pulling away the tissue. He holds it up in the light with this one being an icy eggplant purple. ]

You didn't have to do this, Miss Hiiragi. They are very nice but I don't deserve them. [ Which is fine. He rejects gifts usually in the first place. It's not unusual for him to say no to something like this. ] I was only doing the right thing. It doesn't require any sort of payment.

[ After admiring it in the light, he puts it back in the box carefully and takes up the perfume bottle. He tilts it this way and that, observing how its contents doesn't quite linger at its insides. His upper lip curls-- not in an unpleasant way --revealing the forked bits of his tongue from just barely past his teeth. He inhales... ]

What is this?

Of course I didn't have to. [ Her rejection of his rejection is still calm, carried in a languid shrug of her shoulders, a resettling of her wings. ] But we all receive terrible things that we don't deserve in this world. It's better to get something nice for a change, isn't it?

[ It's not like she appreciates him pulling the attention off her or anything. When he gets to the sealed bottle, she watches the way he examines it — but when she answers, her attention is turned towards one of the hanging paintings. ]

Something practical. [ Her hands shift on her knees; when she talks, her right pinky taps at her knee for something like nerves. ] It's a tissue-sealant. For wounds. Skin, organs, scales, that kind of thing. It's less effective when it's foggy, but a little bit still goes a pretty long way, so don't dump the whole thing out on a paper cut.

[ "Practical." ]

[ Inspirational and sentimental as that musing is, Rohan isn't going to say that he does or does not jive with it. He just lets out a hum and nods. ]

So it will be useful when I shed again, yes? [ Or if Jotaro's scales fall out or if Karamatsu's back decides to fuCKING EXPLODE AGAIN. ] The salve I use is starting to run low. I was going to ask around for something like this. My supplier seems to have gone elsewhere. [ AKA: She's probably back home and he'll never get Sweet Nymph Sap Salve ever again. The bottle itself is just nice to look at. ]

This is very generous of you considering our last encounter. Since the parasite business is presumably over, things have settled down? The features you retained are very appealing. [ Indicated by him motioning to his head and mimicking her 'crown' in the air. ]

[ She purses her lips at the first query — it's more useful for patching up a stabbing, but he goes on, so she waits. At the gesture, her face twists up, a little disgruntled. ]

They're annoying. I can't even style my own hair without getting caught on these things.

[ Her hair is styled, though, tied up in its usual pigtails — she just has to rely on other people to help hold things in place so she doesn't tear her arms open (more).

But she exhales, shrugging her shoulders. ]

I'm glad it's gone, though. I wasn't exaggerating back then, you know. Most of the time I was around you, it was trying to get me to kill you. I couldn't even be in the same room with my best friend without having to talk myself down from ripping his throat out.

[ Considering how calmly the interaction is going this time around — it's a pretty obvious difference in attitude. ]

Anyway, that stuff— [ she nods towards the bottle still in his hands ] —'s better for sealing a cut jugular, or a punctured lung, or things like that. But it should work for shedding too, if it's that bad.

I could tell, trust me. That is why I didn't push issues too hard with you the last time you were here. I just wanted to see your powers and what they did to you. [ Also MOCK HER CHANGES but it's Fine. ]

I have been making Jotaro pants with the amount of skin I shed away. It's not so painful anymore but having anything on it generally helps. So much of it just sloughs off when it's done eating at my arms and my ears. [ His free hand taps one of the dangly earrings near his cheekbones. Rather than pen nibs, they are made of a single large, shimmering purple and red scale on either side of his face. ]

It might come in handy if Josuke tries to fight back when I turn him into a puddle next week. [ The acrid bouquet of his venom slips past his lips. ] Ah--... Can I get you anything?

Mm. [ Her head shakes, and with an easy slip she gets down from the stool — not that she has much room to go down, legs as unfortunately long as they still are. She smooths out her skirt. ]

No, I don't need anything. It was just that.

[ The gift-delivery, she means; her errand is finished. ]

[ Oh, she wants to leave. That's unacceptable. She's just gotten settled in and so has he. Not that he ever wants Yuzu to overstay her welcome. This time, he wants to utilize her. People run hot when they are upset, but Rohan runs deathly cold. No Jotaro, no warmth. He's got this one in the bag right at this second. ]

Hold on. [ He slinks back around to the front desk, making one perfect, discreet circle around her with the length of his body. Rummaging, rummaging, Rohan is looking for his book whilst the extraneous part of his tail moves backward and leaves his front half looking like it isn't moving at all. Yes, he's quietly trying to wind stacks of his coils around in that circle without drawing her attention too closely. ]

When you left a few weeks ago, I began working on something. You hadn't needed to stick around for it. [ Now he moves backward. Nonchalantly opening the book and thumbing, he neglects to acknowledge that he has her surrounded by literal dozens of feet of his tail-- yet none of it is touching her. He's keeping her heat in one place. He turns it to show her a page bearing her likeness frozen in her shadow-cutting maneuver he had wanted to see so badly. From the edges of her claws fly spatters of ink to mimic the shadow she hurled toward the canvas. Pointy horns, those extra eyes ablaze in black and white with her bow-shaped wings flared and glittering with a gradient to match her scales. She is throwing that shadow from one page to the other.

Like she is in a comic book. ]

I was so impressed with that ability you showed me. I would like to use it some time and wanted to keep it close for reference. What do you think?

[ A little surprised by the request, she leans back against the stool, watching him dig through the desk. Her tail flicks a little to find a position to relax, her wings still folded in close; her hands grab the seat to keep it from skidding across the hard floor and knocking her to the ground.

He talks over the shifts of paper and shifts of scales across the ground; her claws tap at the underside of the stool seat, expression neutral. Like she's not going to notice a tactic like that... hasn't she told him before that she lives with a Naga?

When he brings the sketchbook her way, flipping to the proper page, she peers at him a moment before turning her gaze to the book. Of course, it's not the prismatic magnificence of the first portrait, but it is beautiful. There's a real sense of Action to it — like her arm really were in mid-motion, and that the sweep of the throw will resume in only a moment.

Here is his compliment: those blue eyes, whose color he worked so hard to capture, are focused on that page — but so too are the eyes that sit above them. Wider set, similarly veined with rivulets of gold like mortar, theirs is a different hue entirely, a reddish purple close to opaque ruby.

She hasn't opened them before him, before now — but she doesn't look at him with them. ]

I'm glad I don't have to deal with all that anymore. [ Something like a joke, a hand hovering over the page, fingers indicating the bars on her tail. ] It's amazing... your memory is really strong, isn't it?

[ A furrow, as she looks towards the ink crossing the page. ]

What do you mean, use it?

[ He's only guessed what that second set looks like. Thankfully any errors in his prediction of their color are absent in black, white, and shades of gray. Yuzu's everything always seems to be a surprise. There hasn't been a time he's seen her where something new didn't pop up.

She indicates the parts she's glad she doesn't have anymore and he replies to her physically with a shrug of his shoulders. ]

The memory is an artist's greatest tool, Miss Hiiragi. I've already told you they're my forte. [ There's a chance that might get her into Lecturing Mode and he continues without a beat. ]

For my manga, I mean. Or anything one-shot that I think it would be appropriate for. [ His finger hovers over the outline of ACTION YUZU™, following how smooth it is. ] The fluidity it possessed at a short distance like that could be useful if I need to grant an ability to one of my characters. Gargoyles are clunky creatures who are not often associated with such gracefulness. It is like when I watch Jotaro fly or when he tried to swim at the beach a few weeks ago. I'm astounded every time I get the opportunity to view something so intimate and exceedingly rare. Not many monster types surprise me anymore. Gargoyles pull things out of their hats that never cease to impress me.

Clunky? [ The descriptor takes her by surprise. Yuzu glances up from the page, upper eyes closing quickly for shifting focus. (And though she knows she needs to practice using them if she wants them to be useful, it's too nauseating to take in so much excess detail for very long.)

Still, a word like that — it doesn't seem to match the ones she knows. Yusei was always so dexterous with everything, with white scales that mirrored the moonlight better than still water; Rio with her pale look, a source of fire somehow carved from a glacial shelf. The trepidatious darkness of Yuto, the strength and vigor of Suou, when those two still walked this world... ]

Maybe you just haven't seen the right ones.

[ A pause, considering. Then again, none of them were any good at dancing, and she doubted that Jotaro of his was particularly elegant.

She shrugs; within that motion, the lower bulbs of her wings unhook, allowing the limbs to hang out a little wider, less bound. There's no risk to anything knocking over, but with a greater surface area exposed, more heat enters the air.

Not as sneaky as he'd hoped. ]

Where do the others fall? The other forms we're forced into.

[ MONSTER HOT OR NOT. ]

[ That Jotaro of his is also built like a bulldozer so take or leave his definition of graceful in the terms of rock dragons.

His coils close a little bit on the air, siphoning it both around herself and trapping it against his scales. She's no doubt seen through his cleverly-constructed and lazy ruse. Until she hits him, he's not going to unwind. Nope. ]

Not counting nagas? I'm convinced that we are the most beautiful of all the monsters but that also factors in my penchant for vanity. [ He admitted it. Amazing. ] I like drawing harpies an awful lot. Mers too. Goblins are plain. Wendigos move in a manner I find bizarrely appealing...

It's hard to place a label on any one species because of how diverse they all are. You and Jotaro are excellent specimens of gargoyles, for one without my own bias. I have seen and drawn and painted so many things...

There is a troll girl who is one of the most beautiful creatures I have ever laid eyes on.

What about you?

[ Nagas... the most beautiful.......nagas.. She can't help it. She bites both of her lips back as far as her teeth will allow, a curled hand pressing hard against her mouth, trying to suppress a tremble for a laugh. Sure, Kishibe might have that art house inkblot vibe going for him, the naga she thinks of first is Yuya — with his bright, clashing stripes and the cute (whip) viper in his hair and his candy-crayon coloration and the size and spectacle of his rattle, the easy target in the shape of an inflated human hand, like a mascot costume glove tied to the end, locked in the wide-finger splay of a wave.

She loves him, but beautiful isn't the word.

With effort she forces laughter down, steadying her mood the longer he goes on — for each type of creature he names, she thinks of who she knows bearing that pelt, who bore that skin before. The ones who are still alive, and the ones— ]

Me? [ Oh, her opinions. ] Eh, just on looks alone, or anything?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

IC INBOX / BUSINESS CARD ( ARCHIVE AS OF 12/13 )

spikes some frappuccinos tbh

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coils around but in a friend way

okay kaa

sure rojan

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WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, ROHAN KISHIBE. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 512.66.730.91 * USER has joined 512.66.730.91 <AUTOMATED REPLY, DO NOT RETURN:> You have reached the inbox of Rohan Kishibe. I am currently away and unable to answer messages. Leave a BRIEF** message with a subject line below. Messages will be replied to in order of importance and subject matter. Advertisements and junk mail will be ignored and blocked from this server.