terribibble | Ryslig IC Contact

Ryslig IC Contact

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, FIDDLEFORD HADRON MCGUCKET. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 011.23.581.321 * teslacoils has joined 011.23.581.321 >> teslacoils has posted an AUDIO MESSAGE. If you wish to listen, type LISTEN01. <teslacoils> Lab hours are 10 AM to 6 PM Mon-Wed, 7 PM to 3 AM Thur-Fri, special appointments available. <teslacoils> I am no longer associated with the Fourth God. <teslacoils**> But I will answer any questions you might have about him with the honest truth.

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Pythonmelon
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knittinggiantbeanies

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Okay, sure.

You say that but something in your voice tells me that you're hesitating. Maybe because you can't do 'good' without the guidance of your God showing you the way.

I'm not religious back at home, nor have I ever been, but I am pretty sure that is what the purpose of priests and prophets is. To guide. Be the hand of the God the other followers cannot see. If you are trying to guide people on a path that Elia is obscuring, what is the point?

Contemplate that.

Is it Elias who wants to do 'good' or is it just you?

Well, see, that's the whole problem right there, isn't it?

I know what good and bad are without him. I'd know what good and bad were even without the actual God, because y'know, folks keep thinkin' I worship Elias but I've always been a Christian and that hasn't changed.

[Sure, he's a pretty lazy Christian, but the fact remains he's never considered Elias a replacement for God. Elias calls himself a god, sure, and Fiddleford uses that word because it's the one Elias likes, but he's never believed that Elias was actually a divine being. One possessed of great power and magic, sure, but that's different.]

I don't know. Maybe that's the whole problem. I've never come at this like a religion.

[ huh. ]

Then what did you come at it as? Solace...?

[ because guess what so did he ]

[He nods.]

I've always thought of it somethin' like a self-help group. It keeps me grounded. Keeps me from losin' myself to my snake brain.

[A little like Monsters Anonymous.]

It's a community of folks who are just tryin' to make their life here a little better. And I want to keep givin' folks that, because lord knows people deserve to have solidarity and support here if they want it, and I have a lot more resources to do it with the Fourth behind me than without him. I don't like that, exactly, but it's the truth of things.

So kind of what I did.

Sort of.

[ He taps his chin. ]

What drew you to Marco?

[Oh. Well that's sort of... it's not exactly a non-sequitur but it still catches Fiddleford by surprise. That's an awful personal question of Rohan to be asking, but then, this whole conversation has suddenly gotten very personal.

He doesn't know how he feels about that, in all honesty. He still doesn't know if he can trust Rohan, really, but Rohan invited him here in good faith and despite that hiccup earlier hasn't actually hurt him. He can't trust Rohan, just like he can't really trust most people, but he can at least believe that Rohan's intentions are probably not evil at this particular moment.]

... This is goin' to sound stupid, but he was from California. We knew the same places. He was the first normal thing I found in this place and I needed that those first couple of days. And then he was always so thoughtful. He never treated me like I was wrong to be... to be scared. He never judged me or told me I ought to just suck it up or walk it off or nothin' like that.

[His grammar slips a little. He doesn't notice. It's hard to talk about this when he loved Marco, when he still loves Marco, and is grappling with how deeply Marco hurt him.]

He understood better than anyone.

[ Cute.

That's kind of CUTE. In the worst possible way. Rohan doesn't make any faces-- no smile, no grimace; he just watches the naga and how he reacts. His intentions are pretty neutral. He's learning.

And Rohan loves to learn about people. ]

It's nice when you find someone who understands. I can't really relate. Jotaro had a lot of baggage that I couldn't possibly fathom. I felt that we always had a disconnect there.

[ i'm not saying i ENVY you or anything hahahahahaha ]

[It was cute, wasn't it? Uglycute, like a crosseyed puppy.]

Well I'm not sayin' we didn't have that, sometimes. There were things he was dealin' with that I couldn't... I mean I tried my best. That's what you do when you love someone.

[It's not normal to hear voices in your head, Marco! It's not healthy to listen to what they say!]

[ Whatever Rohan is doing, he stops. He stops focusing on wherever the emotional part of this conversation is headed. He tied himself into a knot-- painted himself in a corner, if you will. His hands glide through the air, conjuring up a pencil from the desk to play with between his fingers.

Time to stall. ]

Excellently put, Fiddleford. You open up, you accommodate, you try your best... [ A beat. A furrow of his brow and a twitch of his lips.

SNAP goes that pencil. ]

It's why I don't trust people.

Y'know, I don't either, usually?

[He's tired and he's hurt and he's tipsy and he should have stopped a couple of layers of familiarity back but he needs to talk about this if he's ever going to wrap his head around it.]

Never have. Trusted people. Hope for the best, plan for the worst, y'know. That's not trust, that's just bein' optimistic because the alternative's assumin' everyone's goin' to turn on you eventually and that's no way to live.

He's the first person since my wife I trusted and I should've figured it'd go the same way.

[ Rohan literally cannot blame this on alcohol. He dragged his own garbage kicking and screaming to the surface but he'll keep it on Fiddleford for now. ]

Things don't always go the way we want them to.

No. No, they sure as hell don't. He didn't even mean for this to happen, y'know. It wasn't his fault. Elias played him, I think.

[And now he's going to take the fall for it. Already is, but Fiddleford has a lot more problems with 'but maybe it's a good thing' than he does with the thing itself. If Marco hadn't tried to justify it things wouldn't have spiraled so badly.]

I haven't asked him. Elias. I mean. I haven't asked him how much of this was on purpose. Don't want to know the answer, bein' honest.

[ He plays with the snapped bits of pencil idly. ]

But do you think Elias will give you an honest answer?

No. That's one of the reasons I don't much want to know it.

[He runs a hand back through his hair, closes his eyes. Breathes in. Breathes out. God, he hates this.]

You said -- you said had. Earlier. Past tense. What happened?

[He didn't really know Jotaro and it's not as though he keeps up with Rohan's social life. This is news.]

[ uh oh ]

... Which part?

You said you always had a disconnect.

Oh. Jotaro.

We had parts of one another that we couldn't relate to. His were chasms between mine... And. [ He parts his lips but stops. ]

I always felt like I was reaching and reaching to grab onto something that I was never going to get because he wasn't going to open it up.

A crossed wire or nothing at all.

That was what loving him felt like sometimes.

[It sounds a lot like something he'd say about Marco or about his ex-wife, near the end of things. Or maybe Stanford, all the time, but the less he thinks about that the better. The point is that he knows that feeling and boy howdy it sure is a bizarre sensation to be sympathizing with Rohan Kishibe of all people.]

Oh.

M'sorry. Probably shouldn't've asked.

[That's private, he's got enough sense left in him to know that, and he's a man who respects privacy.]

But I know -- I know what that's like. I know it ain't no fun.

[ This is just as weird for him, alright... ]

'No fun' is a nice way of putting it.

[ Rohan's chest rises with a deep breath. It falls. ]

Shit happens. It happens to people who do their best. I know that you and I don't see eye to eye on much but I would be hard-pressed to say that we don't have a few things in common other than the snake situation.

[He nods. It feels weird to admit it but... yeah, he and Rohan see eye to eye on a lot more than he'd previously assumed.]

Y'know you're not wrong. Odd as it feels to say it.

Can't believe I'm feelin' better about talkin' to a Fog follower than my own dang god.

[ Same. ]

Say... [ He's skipping right over the bonding part here. Well, not quite. ] What if I asked you to come unwind somewhere else?

Maaaaaaa~aaaybe... The Fog Church? Open bar.

Now hold on a moment.

[He levels his gaze at Rohan, mustering up all the distrust he possibly can into his expression.]

You want me to just -- just walk right into her church and get even more drunk than I already am, like that's not just about the most suspect thing anyone's ever suggested to me?

[He looks at Rohan for a long, long moment.]

Alright.

[Whatever. He doesn't care anymore. What's one more death on top of all the rest?]

Edited 2017-08-30 04:30 (UTC)

[ Well, Rohan certainly sees no problems here. ]

No murder required. Promise~

[Privately he isn't sure how much a promise from Rohan Kishibe is worth, but at this point it's less because he thinks Rohan is actively trying to trick him and more because Rohan himself is a big old question mark to him. This is a man who's killed him multiple times, and yet Fiddleford doesn't really hate him for it. Some part of him recognizes that it was all strictly business, and it wasn't as though Rohan ever presented it as anything else. It was never personal.

This, though? This has been very personal.]

Uh-huh. Shake on it?

[It's like a pinkie swear for adults. Let him have this.]

[ A hand is extended.

Rohan is somewhat legitimately interested in seeing what might happen if he brings Fiddleford over. Somehow, this feels like the meeting came together perfectly. ]

After you.

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