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

[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.]