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]

[ He's gonna put that experience in his manga, man. ]

The heat? [ He cocks an eyebrow at her. After a second, he shakes his head. ] No. I run very cold all the time. There is no need. If the both of you were in the house at the same time, you might. I enjoy the warmth.

[ As in he literally attaches himself to his favorite heat source when he needs it. Yuzu doesn't need that fate. ] I look at it this way: If what I experienced the night of my transformation did not kill me, there is far worse that could have happened. Everything I get handed up until it passes the tolerance I had at that moment is something that I can survive.

It holds a pseudo-philosophical symbolism to me.

[ An afterthought: ]

I was shot with an arrow that was meant to kill me, which granted me a power back home through my sheer willingness to live through it.

[operadiance]

That's amazing.

[ It's spoken with a quiet breath of awe, but no high energy of great surprise or incredulous disbelief. People have been dragged here from all sorts of different times, different realities, different dimensions — why shouldn't that sort of thing be possible? Her tail curls and uncurls as she thinks. ]

Any world can be a place that creates pain and suffering. This world is just... much faster about it, I think. Much more extreme than most people are used to. It's difficult to endure, and survive, but I think it's much harder to do that and to still... want to keep living.

[ She looks towards the ceiling more than she does toward Kishibe, seeking words from the patterns in architecture. ]

Not quite that... but to survive and still have passion. Where the things that were most important to you before you suffered so much still are just as cherished. Not everybody has the strength to hold on like that.

[manuscripture]

[ He has had to have this conversation with Jotaro before to a different degree. This gargoyle has a lot more to say than the other one. ]

What do we gain from abandoning our passions after staring fear in the face, Miss Hiiragi? [ Ah-ha... He peers up from the color he has finally created-- no, mastered to match her hair, having added a pinch of blue during their conversation. It's perfect. ]

If your passions are all you have left in the entire world... Would you be so willing to give them up?

[operadiance]

Of course not.

[ She says it with the quickness of certainty, but perhaps she shouldn't say it so easily. After all, isn't this the same conversation she's had with another Naga — an argument where his only venom was his voice, accusations that she was throwing away the things she believed in, trading her Entertainer's smile for a hardened will and unstoppable spirit, trading softness and kindness and a heart that bruises so easily for one that can withstand the fires and agonies of this world. Does she really have the right to declare something like that, when even her best friend — the person who knows best the place she came from, and the future that once shone bright before her — can't see it?

(But then, is that really her truest passion? Is that really the thing that sets the fire in her heart, that gets her blood boiling?)

Indecision is a weight on her shoulders, but she forces herself to shrug it off, to shake her hands at the wrists, as though these heavy thoughts were physical things that cling to her body, like cold water and dark algae. Her cheeks puff for a moment of held breath before it expels outward, thankfully bereft of fire or smoke. After all— ]

The thing I want most in the world isn't going to change just because it's difficult to reach. [ To protect her friends — to protect the city she calls home, to safeguard the peace that makes those smiles possible... isn't that the thing that makes her Yuzu? The girl who wanted to become stronger to protect her school — the girl that would challenge anyone who threatened her friends, isn't that who she's always been? Isn't that who she is?

She speaks with greater confidence, and it shows in her very skin: the change would be slight to an untrained eye, but an artist would spot immediately the richer saturation to her red scales, their color shifting ever so slightly to a warmer hue. Fired up indeed. ] I won't back down from that, even if it's terrifying, or if I get hurt along the way. You wouldn't need courage or passion if everything came easy.

Once you give up on what you love most, then you've already lost everything that makes you you.

[manuscripture]

[ He DOES spot it immediately. He nearly drops what he is working with, precariously balancing his little slat of paint in one hand whilst the other palms around for his bottle of-- Uhm... Yellow, maybe? We'll start there. He drags some of the untouched red around with one finger, followed by little bits of yellow being flicked onto it. He doesn't need orange, but something fierce. ]

You are absolutely correct. You need to fight for what makes you who you are in this very moment.

[ Good, good! ]

Tell me more, Miss Hiiragi. What are you passionate about? Tell me everything.

[operadiance]

Huh?

[ She's not at all sure what to make of this guy. One minute he's dismissing what she says like he couldn't care less, the next he wants to know everything about her. What gives? But her resolve is still adrenaline in her veins, so the words burn just as easily. ]

We're entertainers, so we're always supposed to put on a good show, but — it's not thrilling to me unless there's a challenge to it. Yuya used to always clown around when we were matched up, and wouldn't focus on his opponent at all. It was really frustrating! What's the point of winning against someone who never really puts himself into the fight? He's gotten better since then, but our duels are still really different.

[ Is she still talking about card games?? Rohan why did you do this to yourself. But hey, if he wanted passion, he's getting it in spades. ]

That's why I'm always getting into more trouble — I can't back down from a challenge at all. As soon as I hear someone threatening one of my friends, or something important to me, the first thing I want to do is challenge them head on. The dueling we're taught is supposed to be to bring smiles to the people around us, but I keep using it for arguments... and when I lose, I try to make myself better so I can win the next time and get back what I've lost. I want to be stronger than I was, and I want to protect the people that are important to me.

But more than any of that... more important than any of that, the world I'm from is on the brink of war. It's standing on the edge of invasion and destruction. I'd do whatever I have to to protect my home. Even if it kills me, so long as I have life now, I have to keep fighting for that future no matter what. It doesn't matter how many gods there are or how much they change my body or what other people think — I'll rip open the gateway between dimensions by myself if I have to — I'm not going to abandon the place that's so precious to me.

[ #fight me #i'll fight you #i'll fight me #i'll fight god #yuzu could you please chill ]

[manuscripture]

[ He has sparked up what he wanted to see from her. He knows how she is going to look in the finished product. It has been clear as day in his head since he first set eyes on her. She might be talking about her card games-- which he does not actually care about and they sound stupid as Hell --but Rohan is looking for what is fueling it.

It goes from card games to My World Is About To Have A War™ real quick. ]

There you go. You've got it now.

[ The reddish-orange he has made sticks out against his black fingers. His lips have peeled back, flashing his white teeth lined by his black gums from behind his jade lipstick. He palms about for his brush, sweeping it right up and leaving a bright pink smear on the canvas in its wake. The sketch behind it doesn't stand a chance.

He's already getting the base of her hair down. ]

Your love of your home and the people around you makes your colors flare up. Have you noticed? It's beautiful! [ Rohan is diligently working on splashing colors on the eggshell white canvas with expert precision. He swaps brushes with a mere flick of his wrist-- good Lord, he's fast. Colors, colors, and more colors which harshly contrast his own black and white scheme. ]

You're a remarkable creature...

Who matters the most to you here? Are they even here? Or are they back home so very far away from you? How does that make you feel?

[ there's no stopping this train!!!!!!!! ]

[operadiance]

[ She knows artists are supposed to be... eccentric, but this Kishibe guy is really taking not just the cake, but the whole pastry shop of weird. It doesn't help that the weak part of her latches onto that compliment, that beautiful, has taken hold and wants to preen for it. The gargoyle's heart that lives inside her own hungers for praise as much as it does for flesh, but this is an appetite she won't feed, either. Her cheeks flush for irritation, and her hands clench into fists against her knees, and she forces herself to look elsewhere.

As sour as his phrasing makes her feel, she'd rather take that different topic than hear him go on about the way she looks. ]

My best friend is here. Yuya. He's a naga, too. We've been friends for years. We don't always get along, and we fight sometimes, but we're still really close. He's the only person from my dimension that I'm friends with.

[ A beat. ]

Well, I guess there's Sawatari, too — he's a guy that goes to our junior high, but we weren't friends until after he got here. All our other hometown friends, though... our parents, and the other students, none of them are here. [ She frowns. ] I'm glad none of them have to suffer in this world, but... even though we have to open that doorway back, so everyone can go home... I'm still glad that I got to meet him again here.

... Even if we're always fighting, it's more time than I would have had.

[manuscripture]

[ She isn't into flattery but he surely is. He prefers to receive it. No one is more perfect than he is and that is based on his professional opinion. When he finds something PARTICULARLY worthy though...

The mention of her friend (also a snake) pops up and he draws his eyes away from his work for the moment she explains. And another friend? Oh man. He chuckles to himself, not bothering for even a second to filter his words: ]

You fight with the latter one all the time and you're best friends with the former. [ Time to be Inappropriate. ] Is there romantic investment involved with either of them?

Maybe both?

[operadiance]

No, I mean, I argue with Yu—

[ She starts to explain, but then he says that, and her whole face goes brilliantly red. ]

—uhh? No, that doesn't have anything to do with anything. [ He's stricken an exposed nerve. ] There's nothing going on like that. We're all just friends.

[manuscripture]

It has everything to do with something.

[ haha gotcha, kiddo ]

Your face and the color of your scales tells a different story. [ He points at her with the blunt end of one of the now four brushes he has in his hands. ] People don't blush like that when there is 'nothing going on'.

Especially not young girls. It's practically a trope.

Which one do you like more?

[operadiance]

[ She huffs. Caught, but struggling on the line. ] Well, it's not like it matters. Even if I cared about that, none of those guys are interested in dating a girl like me, so it's not worth my time to worry about, is it?

[manuscripture]

[ It matters. Romance is drama. Romance is BORING but love quadrangles are tolerable. ]

A girl like you?

What is that supposed to mean? Explain.

[operadiance]

Yuya used to say stuff like, "why would I be with a crude, strong girl like her" if anyone suggested we were together back home. Nowadays, he says that he's always liked me, but the idea of dating me is "scary."

[ Well, with her expression right now... that probably is pretty scary to a teenage boy. ]

[manuscripture]

[ Annnd the content is taking a nosedive into mundane territory and he's already bored of it. It sounded less pedestrian two minutes ago. Rohan isn't too sure what he expected. Yawn. ]

That's cute. Cute but boring. [ Flat as can be. ] You're losing me, Miss Hiiragi... Teenage romance is nice and everything but this isn't as dynamic as I thought it would be.

You're such a vibrant girl. I'm surprised by how droll it comes off.

[operadiance]

You're the one who kept pushing, you don't have any right to complain about the details of my life. [ Excuse you. ] What, am I supposed to tell you that we're star-crossed and torn apart by destiny, or that he fell in love with one of the other girls with my face, or that nobody wants to date someone they know is already dead?

Just because I'm an entertainer doesn't mean my life is for anybody else's entertainment. You're as bad as Sawatari.

[manuscripture]

[ Now he stops completely. Somehow he's added two more brushes between his fingers, making a whole six in various shades of red and pink and only one with a blue-violet hue on its bristles. ]

Those last two would make for a good read. The last one especially. [ HMMM... ] It's almost specific enough to sound like you're projecting it as a hypothetical situation.

[ A beat. He tiiiilts his head, eyes focused on her until his slit pupils dilate and constrict as their own punctuation. ]

I rather enjoy people with entertaining lives. You always like a good book, don't you? It's the same thing with people. I dislike boring people. [ He dislikes most people. ] Consider yourself a fantastic novel.

[ haha get it it's a reference haha.................... ]

[operadiance]

[ She looks towards the window. ]

... Well. I don't think he's actually gotten a crush on Selena. She's more intense than I am.

[ Oh. That was true. ]

And none of them really want to accept that I'm dead, either, so he wouldn't count that against me.

[ And. So was that? Yuzu what the hell. ]

[manuscripture]

[ Hold up. ]

You're dead?

[ He can't go through this Dead Girl shit again, man. g o d ]

That's a very blasé way to add that detail. What happened there?

[operadiance]

... Motorcycle crash.

[ Aren't you too young to drive????? Yuzu????????? ]

The other guy spun his bike against the front of mine. The... force of the collision threw me and the bike off the highway and into a building. There was an explosion.

[ That's. Pretty cut and dry, isn't it? ]

When I was first brought to this world, my memory ended a while before that. Since then, I've had a few dreams where I remembered things that happened after — things that I'd locked away. But when I compared what I remembered in my "dreams" to what my friends remembered, they matched.

[ She tries to smile, and shrugs her shoulders. ]

I found out about it a long time ago, but... I'm still alive here, so I can still do something. When we get that pathway open between worlds, even if I can't go back with them, the way they're hoping for... if it means getting them out of this world, I could accept that price.

[manuscripture]

[ Oh man, he had a motorcycle once until he let Josuke touch it. ]

That's intense. [ That's a word for it. ] Being given new life here is kind of common for a lot of people, isn't it? You are far from the first person I have met with that condition being what happened before they arrived here.

Tell me about these dreams. Are they things you chose to lock away for one reason or another?

[ Better question: ]

What are they?

[operadiance]

They're memories you don't remember. ... I think. Like, you said earlier that your roommate was thirteen years behind you, right? If it worked the same way for him, he'd "dream" of what came after what he "remembered." So maybe he'd remember a few more weeks of his "future," or a few more months. They... they feel more real.

[ Her toes curl on themselves, so when she kicks her foot against the floor, she doesn't gouge it with her talons. ]

When that last one happened, there were some other details I "remembered," so I asked one of my friends about it. It was something from before we met, but that I never knew, so... if it matched, that meant it had to be true. I couldn't just trust a vision like that right away. But the things from my dream matched reality.

... I don't think I would have forgotten it intentionally.

[manuscripture]

[ HMMM...

All of the brushes between his fingers wiggle in one long thoughtful wave. ]

I have heard through the grapevine that this place erases memories. I have not experienced it myself-- or... I haven't remembered to try and remember those things.

Similarly to Jotaro's circumstances, I have another person from my 'time'. We are from the same year and the same place. He burned down part of my house. [ There's a point here. ] Josuke doesn't remember an event that occurred because of him. He was there at the end of it...

And yet he had to ask me the last thing I remembered before coming here.

[ He hums~ ]

Memories are my forte, Miss Hiiragi. They're so strange, aren't they?

[operadiance]

Yes. [ She nods once, expression thoughtful. ] Even where I'm from, there was... a strange occurrence. A girl I knew, something happened to her to change her memories. I don't know how it happened, or why, but the way she changed can't be explained any other way.

[ And it's true that she doesn't know full well the method of it, but there's only one person who can be responsible — someone who seemed set on doing harm to anyone for the sake of doing good for everyone. ]

They seem so fragile, our memories... but sometimes they're all we have.

[ She pauses, glancing up. ]

When you say they're your strength, what do you mean?

[manuscripture]

Memories make people who they are. They shape our lives for the good and the bad.

[ He is back to paying attention to the canvas again. She can watch herself being shaped on it again. Not just her hair but the large sweep of one of her wings, the curve of her shoulder. One of her eyes is glancing over it playfully. The air of a young person washes through every stroke, and she will be as beautiful as he claims her to be. ]

I mentioned before that I was struck with an arrow some time before coming here. It granted me a power I call Heaven's Door which allows me to turn peoples' lives into the literal version of an open book. I can read everything about them from their birth to their first kiss and to the traumas they have endured. It is my preferred way to garner information... [ A beat. ] I'm not a people person.

[ With one of the purple brushes set to the beginnings of her eye, he rolls his gaze over to the real Yuzu. If she pays attention, there is an eerie glow to his already strange bright green eyes. ]

I can take those memories away and keep them for myself. You take a page from a book if you really love it, right? Or... I can write things in of my own accord.

[ He flicks the wrist with all of the brushes, sending speckles of blue into the painted eye in front of him. All without taking his eyes off of her. ]

Were they afraid of heights when I met them? They are now.