manuscripture | ( IC INBOX / BUSINESS CARD )

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.

[ 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

well, i'm glad about that

but i wasn't doing it just to get the painting, obviously

you know that right

I have a feeling. You didn't need to tell me that.

Come up to my study. You can get your prize.

okay. i'm on my way.

[And indeed, off he goes, generally pleased with himself and fiddling with a red paper card in his big clawed fingers as he makes his way to the door of Rohan's study.]

[ Fatigued from the high possibility that Mana's spell is wearing off, Rohan fetches the door right on time to mask his sluggishness despite dousing himself with more water every few hours. Oh, but he sure is perky when he opens up the door. He isn't quite smiling ear to ear but there's that subtle one he keeps tucked away pulled a teensy bit higher at the corners. ]

Why, happy Valentine's Day. I hear you won the estate-wide poetry contest...

[ Really, Rohan isn't as clever on the fly as he thinks he is. Just let him try. ]

Do you have anything else before I let you in?

"Roses are red, violets are blue; my gift is my song and / this one's for you."

[He flips the card around in his fingers again, then smoothly pockets it in favor of bringing his hand up to lightly trace the line of Rohan's jaw with the backs of his fingers.]

Or did you mean "the password is please"?

Both of those work--

[ The hand on his jaw makes his gills flutter in surprised delight. Jotaro's never been THIS smooth THIS fast before. He usually takes some clunky warming up first. It's a treat. With a bat of his eyes, he turns on a toe to lure the gargoyle in past the door.

Crossing the room, he reaches a rectangular shape underneath a black sheet (per his usual method). ]

I hope there are no hard feelings about this serving a double purpose as your birthday present too. Killing two birds with one stone in this case isn't cutting corners.

[And lure he does, which clever-minded readers will observe that not only is MerHan fishing, but the act of doing so makes himself a fish lure.

And it seems it's working on Jotaro, because he follows right along with Rohan, heading over to the rectangular shape and lightly resting one hand on an edge of the sheet without drawing it away.]

It's fine. They're close enough together that it's not that big of a deal. And I'm not really the type to make a big deal about presents, anyway.

[He winks.]

So. Can I look?

[ Rohan swats his scaly, clawed hand to get rid of Jotaro's own from the breathing space from his painting. You don't just ruin an unveiling like that. ]

If you get your mitts off of it you can.

[ Once he has the gargoyle's claw out of the way, he pulls the sheet away--

By now Rohan should have a giant portrait of himself for the very first wall people see when they enter the castle (which he's bragged about making before) but this simply is not that. Rohan's vanity has been trumped yet again by his love of art. Jotaro's joint Birthday-Valentines gift is worth the wait:

Expecting colors is going to be dampened unfortunately. The canvas has been lacquered the purest white he could pick the impurities out of. Rohan's careful and skilled hands despite their sharp claws and clunky arm fins have made clean, precise lines all their own like a manga splash having been done with just one brush. No precision knives or cardstock have helped him mimic the effect he wanted on his painting of the seascape. Coloring book black and white detail rolling waves and a fresh sky complete with wispy clouds on an unmoving breeze. The only colors cutting out the uniform of the piece are the watercolor purple spray which split a long horizontal line across the water from creatures inflight. Seabirds-- a whole flock of them --draw their pretty wings across the water in a pattern as if they are springing up from the depths themselves.

Purple on crisp black and white.

It looks mundane but Jotaro will know how painstaking it was. ]

You don't need a grand piece proclaiming the things you already know. Less is more with you. Showing, not telling. A piece to look at when you can't go outside in the daytime and you want to fill the colors in on your own.

What do you think?

[ It was a risk. It looked boring in comparison to a majority of his work. Then again, he picked it for a reason. ]

...It's the first time we went to the beach...

[He's all but gawking openly as he leans in to peer at the painting, eyes darting back and forth along the clean, minimalist lines, automatically drawn to the purple and the way it guides the gaze around the page with its contrast of color next to all the black and white.

It's somehow quintessentially Rohan, this art. It's not typical, and it's not usual. It's different and shocking and daring — really, it's almost like the lines themselves are daring the viewer to challenge their artistic aesthetic. But there it is, white and black and purple, and he thinks — ]

It's you. You, in the image of the beach. Black and white scales, and purple when you're happy...

[He breathes in slowly, his satisfaction faint and audible.]

You painted a feeling, into the scene you put on the canvas.

[ He draws up his shoulders in proud regard, inwardly preening at the appraisal. His lips pull up and out flies a 'hmph~' of approval. ]

You know that I can't just put anything on a canvas or a page without something between the lines. I wanted it to be a bit more abstract or symbolic in its portrayal.

I didn't think that sprawling us across the damn thing was tasteful. I wanted it to be subtle. [ A little gesture with his hand flutters the ribbon'y fins on his forearm. ]

Like us. For a long time. You know...?

That doesn't sound gross, does it?

It doesn't sound gross. It sounds like us.

[THAT LOGIC HOLDS UP A LOT LESS STRONGLY WHEN YOU CONSIDER THAT YOU, IN FACT, ARE GROSS, JOTARO.

BUT THAT'S NOT THE POINT.]

I'll never get over how you do this. Just...take an idea, or a feeling, or a viewpoint, or something. And make it into an image on a canvas.

[ I DUNNO JOTARO YOU'RE PRETTY GROSS

Still, Rohan smiles among all the preening, stopping in the middle to smile at him. ]

I worked a long time to get to where I am. Contrary to popular belief I didn't fall out being able to draw. I have learned introspection in lieu of my preference toward reality.

This is a meld of both. A feeling and the reality of it. I love you, Jotaro. You are the only person I can say such a thing to, and I think that is why you deserve the most quality product to look at every day.

[ He purses his lips. That all came out at once. ]

I like having something and someone to be proud of. The only thing I have ever wanted in life is to have people enjoy my work. You enjoy it more than anybody... That is a self-actualization goal for me.

Thank you for the privilege.

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