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

[manuscripture]

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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! ))

Comments

[manuscripture]

[ NO DON'T TURN THIS BACK AROUND ON HIM. ]

I asked you first.

[ HEY ROHAN MITSUHIDE GAVE ME AN ELECTRIC GUITAR AND AN AMP THAT'S ALL THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE. ]

[starmark]

Well, are you going to be pissed about what I say?

[AT LEAST GIVE HIM SOME SLACK HERE]

Or are you just asking for the sake of asking?

[manuscripture]

[ OKAY FINE HAVE SOME SLACK. ]

I won't be pissed.

Just.

Answer?

[starmark]

I...

[Suddenly he's looking anywhere else, voice thick like his throat just went tight.]

...I don't know. I don't really have a word for what I think...this...is. Except...that it's good. That I wouldn't want to lose it. I...don't know about all the shit people write down as lyrics in all of those songs. They're just words, just songs.

What it feels like when I play them for you, though...that's something. It's not something I feel about anyone else.

[manuscripture]

I was kidding about the song. [ It's just a bad song, man.

Rohan scuffs his foot on the ground, having backed HIMSELF into a corner whilst trying to do it to Jotaro. Everything has backfired and nothing is fun.

He's not gonna get pissed though. ]

If it helps-- [ Which it might not and this has to be the most awkward possible confession anyone could hope for if it is was it is, goddamn. ] ... It's like that when I draw you. It's not something I feel when I'm drawing anything else.

When you told me to draw us dancing the other day, I did it. I love it a lot.

[starmark]

...Oh.

[Flustered, he actually shifts his weight from foot to foot, idly casting around for a reaction that isn't just being awkward and possibly flushing a little beneath his scales.]

So. We're, uh.

[...]

We're going with...this is something. Something that isn't like anything else. And that's...enough? Maybe? For, uh, for right now?

[manuscripture]

[ It's a good thing he doesn't have that giant length of tongue to swallow and choke himself with right now. It would be useful. ]

We were going with "This is something that isn't like anything else for right now" for a while there in the first place anyway. I think it's different now.

[ AHEM ]

Listen, if you don't--... [ It's like he's trying to make words or something. ]

[starmark]

I didn't say that!

[Well, that's certainly a spot of sudden urgency, isn't it? At least he's not shouting or anything, but he's certainly alarmed to some degree.]

I didn't...say that. That I don't...

[Well, something.]

It just. It feels like —

[manuscripture]

[ He chuffs right back at that little snap, not yelling or stomping his feet either. It was just a little jolt.

IF HE WERE STILL A SNAKE, HE WOULD HAVE HISSED INSTEAD BUT THIS IS WHAT WE HAVE. ]

Stop pussyfooting, Jotaro.

I think that maybe I could make that work. I've made everything else that's gone to Hell work. Why not keep pulling things out of my hat until its empty?

If I can pull a GOOD thing out of it...

[ that sounded better in his head but it's FINE. ]

[starmark]

— I don't want you to die!

[And — there it is.

As if released from the trap of his throat on Rohan's command, all of a sudden there's a rare raw chunk of genuine irrational feeling, and it's got Jotaro staring in the direction of the floor, like he's hanging his head.]

It feels like if I say it I'm — I'm, something will happen. To you. If I say it and something bad happens to you, it feels like it'll be my fault.

I know it's stupid. Why do you think I never wanted to say anything about it...

[manuscripture]

[ Jotaro's eyes have turned to the ground and Rohan's are set wide straightahead.

Jotaro has that thing about people he cares about dying and shit. How COULD WE FORGET. Now it just looks like he literally scolded a gargoyle into needing to stand in the corner.

Well shit, he feels bad about it. ]

Nothing is going to happen to me. [ Rohan closes his eyes and heaves out a sigh. ] Nothing. It's not stupid. If you aren't--...

[ WORDS. ]

I'm not going to make you say anything you don't want to. Just don't think that I'm going to die or whatever. It makes it sound like I can't take care of myself. I know it's a thing for you but it's not a universal constant.

[ He stops and bends at the waist to peer uuuuup at Jotaro's downturned face. ]

Okay? Jotaro?

[starmark]

[Subconsciously, he reaches out when Rohan tries to look him in the eyes, arms extended like he's looking for contact and hoping to find it by holding him.]

I don't know why I can't stop feeling like that. If I know better, then it ought to just go away, right?

[...Yes, Virginia, because that's exactly how emotions work, you can just rationalize them away with logic, that's why everyone does it.]

I don't want to live always waiting for the next thing to go wrong...but sometimes it seems like that's just how my life is always going to be.

[manuscripture]

[ Look, he gets it. He really does. It's why he isn't pitching a fit or saying that Jotaro is deflecting. He steps into his reach. This is where he'd start petting his scales or just try finding a tactile distraction. He doesn't quite have that right now.

But he has the body OF the person at the very least. ]

If something is supposed to go wrong all the time, the cycle has pretty much been broken. There have been things that have happened but none of them were a catastrophe, Jotaro.

I have said it once before: You are the only person you ever seem to lose to. There are less people physically or emotionally trying to fight you here who aren't named Jotaro Kujo.

You have gained more than you have lost. Jotaro Kujo is the only person standing in the way of Jotaro Kujo.

[starmark]

[For a minute, he's quiet, just kind of holding on to Rohan and breathing to steady himself, trying to process what he's hearing and remind himself that he believes it. Even without words, it's obvious in his body language that he's not proud of this lapse, and it seems as though he's not willing to risk trying to address the matter at hand until he's had a little time to regroup and get steady first.

When he does, though, it seems that the quiet paid off. He's less devastated than he'd been, and maybe that's a sign of progress in itself — that his periods of melancholy are shorter and less lasting, and he's bouncing back with tentative courage faster than he once might've.]

I gained you. Lost a lot and found you. And this. And...

[He wavers, vaguely.]

And I...love...th—

[He stops short.]

...you...

[He almost, almost, tacks on a nervous and awkward "...I think" onto the end of that, but blessedly manages to avoid it in favor of just leaving the thought finished.]

[manuscripture]

[ 'Nervous and awkward' would be a perfect set of adjectives for Rohan's state. He will talk and walk big for forever and a day but having a Real Feeling is an ability he's only possessed for a few months. They aren't always complete feelings; they come in chunks and awkward pieces.

This one feels legitimate and was easier said than executed on both ends.

Jotaro is warm. He's too warm and yet Rohan doesn't pull away. He can put up with gargoyle heat until his skin starts to melt off. The only discomfort he feels is that he is getting a little bit sweat. But that could be from anything. Snakes don't sweat. He has literally not had this problem in months.

Rohan does his damnedest not to break stride, even when his reply is just as stilted. ]

I love you too-- [ Too rushed, do it AGAIN. Half expecting his tongue to fall out of his mouth, he regroups and scuffs one foot on the ground. Slower now: ]

I love you too, Jotaro.

[ Mouth dry and gaze turned upward, he doesn't try for a smile but rather a look of mutual agreement that should bring comfort when they've both spooked themselves to different degrees. ]

I've never had anyone to say that to before.

[starmark]

Did you, um...

[That half-stuttered start of a thought comes on the heels of a relatively long pause of his own, which he'd frankly spent mostly expecting the sky to fall or Rohan to spontaneously combust or Dio Brando to jump through the window and punch a hole in someone — and yet, whatever horrors he'd been imagining didn't come to pass, after all.

Funny. Why is he so surprised that Rohan was right about that? Rohan's not usually wrong about anything. It's why he liked him so much in the beginning.

(And now he just likes him. Go figure.)

But eventually, he makes that halfhearted start at a thought, and then after a beat, follows it up and tries it again.]

...No. I know better than to ask something like that, by now. So I guess...what I mean is, it's — I'm...glad. That I didn't have to wait eleven years to meet you. Even with all the shit this place does. It's worth it that I didn't have to wait for you.

[manuscripture]

[ He half-expected himself to spontaneously combust-- by that, he probably might if he stays much closer. The whole bit about Jotaro being able to grill things on himself might not be so farfetched after all.

Rohan isn't a sentimental person, but he takes all of that to heart as something exclusively special to himself. ]

I'm glad that you didn't either. [ Feeling this conversation (thankfully) coming to a close, he reaches up to put the palm of his already too-warm hand on Jotaro's cheek. It might blister. He doesn't mind. He hoists himself up onto his toes and presses a gentle kiss to his lips without fear of those teeth. ]

[starmark]

[It feels so strange, skin on scales. He's so used to claws and snakeskin, has grown accustomed to fangs and coils instead of sleek slender limbs and delicate fingers. It reminds him to be careful, to be mindful —

(and by the way, he smells delicious lately, which isn't to say that he's going to eat Rohan by any means, but still...he smells delicious, which is horrifying if you think about it too hard so he's not going to)

— and then it's lips on lips, with his teeth feeling gawky and too large for his mouth and yet Rohan so soft and right, and there's probably a metaphor in that somehow, if he cared to think about it enough.

But for the moment he's happy just to kiss him, and think about nothing but that; his emotions still feel raw and sandpapery from the confessions he's made, but it's always been sort of easy to lose himself in Rohan, and right now that's what he's going to do.]