( Rohan has never...done something quite like this before.
people are generally insufferable — Rohan is easily exhausted by the sensation of socializing, the small talk, the base and shallow impressions and opinions people think voicing to an artist will gain them anything, hell — the talking alone is agitating. he doesn't have the patience or the lack of respect to himself and others to pretend and play nice with vapid little lies. if a conversation isn't useful in some way, then it's a waste of time.
but people expect it, they feel the need to dump their thoughts onto someone else and rely on some sort of entitlement of others to feel validated — Rohan can't be near people for long before he's zombified by boredom or grinding his teeth in frustration. when he's lucky, he can at least observe enough to glean something interesting for consideration at a later time.
Jotaro Kujo — hasn't been any of those things since they met, with met having been an initially brief experience. even being a man of few words, he certainly had no manner of being quickly forgettable... which was good, considering his key piece in investigating Morioh's dark and gruesome mystery, being a connection to Speedwagon, and...having a legendary Stand ability.
what Rohan would give to turn but a page in that man's backstory...
but if Josuke can put him out of commission for a month, then Rohan is certain Jotaro could do him worse, which is plenty inspiration to not dare to try any tricks with him. besides — sitting in protected silence with him has been...nice. Rohan can admit that to himself because it sprouts from a root of appreciation and respect of the striving academic, sensing an unexpected kinship in him beyond their happenstance abilities.
perhaps it's the notable awareness shared toward each other in shared company; it's one thing to sit candidly within one's own privacy, but even Rohan feels the hollow air of his house from time to time, stirring a restlessness that isn't compatible with the most common solution. Rohan wants people to just leave him be, but not always — leave him alone. as comfortable as he is by himself, he eventually, despite himself...feels that same draw to connect that he hates seeing in other people. sitting in the quietude between them when it occurs has become a new luxury that...Rohan has found himself to be craving at occasional points, since it began.
Jotaro is also...intelligent, intense, and...nice to look at. Rohan might have begun sketching his image since the second café sitting. he wouldn't admit to it unless under pressure. (he studies all structures of features, of course. he catalogues all of his waking experiences for his life's work, after all.)
(totally.)
people have been telling Rohan for years that he ought to make some friends ('some friends crazy enough to enjoy your antics voluntarily,' they usually say...) and while Rohan doesn't think he would even mistakenly call Jotaro Kujo a friend... he can call him tolerable, which is as indulgent as dessert after dinner at this rate. adding to that, everything they endured through Yoshikage's reign of terror has made all of them feel a malleable sort of — bond, perhaps. something unspoken but reliable.
maybe it warrants a house visit when Rohan is finding the bottom of the barrel of his ideas, and maybe it warrants a drink with someone he finds he can put up with — or just actually like being around. this is what typical people do for socializing, anyway. he can give it a whirl.
it's nice. it might feel tense and awkward to an overtly needy and desperate socialite, but for them, it works. Rohan gets to gripe about how long the renovations took, and how difficult the contractors were being about matching the molding of the hallway, Jotaro gives a few gruff murmurs about his thesis...
now they sit in Rohan's rarely-regarded living room, Jotaro's drink defeated, Rohan nearing the bottom of his plum umeshu in lemonade (he figured he would join Jotaro in his choice of drinking palette, minus the blue curaçao) and...Jotaro probes. it's enough to give Rohan pause, looking to the other man with a perk of surprise; he's cut short by the outstretched arm with one balled fist and a singular finger extended to sternly emphasize Jotaro's question. they're — close, closer than Rohan remembers them being before... (except once at the café, walking past Jotaro to leave, through the doorway too narrow to fit two people, edging close enough then to get a sense of what cologne he apparently uses...not that Rohan committed that to memory.
or went to the department store swiftly after to sample every single option they had available, looking for a match, until he developed a headache.)
when Rohan glances, he finds the sketchpad left aside on the console table by the sofa, something he had deposited momentarily when returning from a jaunt through town to sketch that eerie boulder, the Angelo Stone. it's the same sketch pad he's brought with him out on those instances of meeting Jotaro — Rohan assumes he's observant enough to recognize, and therefore, pose his question. )
I don't draw in this room. I don't care for the lighting, and my office is where I keep my reference materials.
But I did take it with me to observe Angelo Stone this morning. I have a suspicious feeling about that boulder, and I don't recall it being here when I lived in Morioh as a child.
( Rohan takes the sketching pad, rather large, but not his most sizable book, and sets his nearly empty glass down in its place. ) I know you don't make useless small talk. Curious about it? ( Jotaro is one of a very few people in this town that has not asked to see his work, or claim to not have knowingly seen it before — but Jotaro has seen him sketch plenty enough by now. this is the first time he has made an effort to ask, and...it wouldn't be Rohan to refuse himself a little peacocking to the man more stone-like than that Angelo fixture piece downtown. )
[ Angelo Stone. Jotaro was definitely there when it was made. (And during its long monologue about DIO, a name he hadn't been sure he'd hear so soon again after going to Morioh just to inform Josuke about his inheritance and his— family ties.)
He...decides not to explain it yet, partially as intentional choice and partially because Rohan's commentary has a point it's getting to, which means it's unforgiving in its pacing. 'I know you don't make useless small talk', and it's nice to be seen without judgment, about that. Rohan's tone is simply stating facts.
The common silence between them is appreciated by both of them, Jotaro's noticed. It's still surprisingly nice to hear it implied so clearly in words. Rohan's noticed.
Jotaro nods, briefly, hand already back at his side. He's never tried to take up extra space - he takes up plenty as it is, threatens things in his vicinity simply by existing. Left to his own devices near others, Jotaro withdraws for many reasons, but some of them are the simple fact that even moving often makes him seem like he's encroaching on another's space.
But there is an invitation in the words, and Jotaro is curious, and Rohan has never once flinched from him and-- Jotaro leans in, just a little, to look at it. He wants to reach a hand out for it. He doesn't. ] Yes. [ Simple, to the point.
Maybe the alcohol, or the company, is why he keeps going. ] I've never seen what you draw when it isn't your manga. [ Truthfully, he's hardly seen what Rohan draws when it is his manga. What Jotaro means is he can't guess what it is Rohan draws when it isn't for work, and...
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
maybe they trade off
people are generally insufferable — Rohan is easily exhausted by the sensation of socializing, the small talk, the base and shallow impressions and opinions people think voicing to an artist will gain them anything, hell — the talking alone is agitating. he doesn't have the patience or the lack of respect to himself and others to pretend and play nice with vapid little lies. if a conversation isn't useful in some way, then it's a waste of time.
but people expect it, they feel the need to dump their thoughts onto someone else and rely on some sort of entitlement of others to feel validated — Rohan can't be near people for long before he's zombified by boredom or grinding his teeth in frustration. when he's lucky, he can at least observe enough to glean something interesting for consideration at a later time.
Jotaro Kujo — hasn't been any of those things since they met, with met having been an initially brief experience. even being a man of few words, he certainly had no manner of being quickly forgettable... which was good, considering his key piece in investigating Morioh's dark and gruesome mystery, being a connection to Speedwagon, and...having a legendary Stand ability.
what Rohan would give to turn but a page in that man's backstory...
but if Josuke can put him out of commission for a month, then Rohan is certain Jotaro could do him worse, which is plenty inspiration to not dare to try any tricks with him. besides — sitting in protected silence with him has been...nice. Rohan can admit that to himself because it sprouts from a root of appreciation and respect of the striving academic, sensing an unexpected kinship in him beyond their happenstance abilities.
perhaps it's the notable awareness shared toward each other in shared company; it's one thing to sit candidly within one's own privacy, but even Rohan feels the hollow air of his house from time to time, stirring a restlessness that isn't compatible with the most common solution. Rohan wants people to just leave him be, but not always — leave him alone. as comfortable as he is by himself, he eventually, despite himself...feels that same draw to connect that he hates seeing in other people. sitting in the quietude between them when it occurs has become a new luxury that...Rohan has found himself to be craving at occasional points, since it began.
Jotaro is also...intelligent, intense, and...nice to look at. Rohan might have begun sketching his image since the second café sitting. he wouldn't admit to it unless under pressure. (he studies all structures of features, of course. he catalogues all of his waking experiences for his life's work, after all.)
(totally.)
people have been telling Rohan for years that he ought to make some friends ('some friends crazy enough to enjoy your antics voluntarily,' they usually say...) and while Rohan doesn't think he would even mistakenly call Jotaro Kujo a friend... he can call him tolerable, which is as indulgent as dessert after dinner at this rate. adding to that, everything they endured through Yoshikage's reign of terror has made all of them feel a malleable sort of — bond, perhaps. something unspoken but reliable.
maybe it warrants a house visit when Rohan is finding the bottom of the barrel of his ideas, and maybe it warrants a drink with someone he finds he can put up with — or just actually like being around. this is what typical people do for socializing, anyway. he can give it a whirl.
it's nice. it might feel tense and awkward to an overtly needy and desperate socialite, but for them, it works. Rohan gets to gripe about how long the renovations took, and how difficult the contractors were being about matching the molding of the hallway, Jotaro gives a few gruff murmurs about his thesis...
now they sit in Rohan's rarely-regarded living room, Jotaro's drink defeated, Rohan nearing the bottom of his plum umeshu in lemonade (he figured he would join Jotaro in his choice of drinking palette, minus the blue curaçao) and...Jotaro probes. it's enough to give Rohan pause, looking to the other man with a perk of surprise; he's cut short by the outstretched arm with one balled fist and a singular finger extended to sternly emphasize Jotaro's question. they're — close, closer than Rohan remembers them being before... (except once at the café, walking past Jotaro to leave, through the doorway too narrow to fit two people, edging close enough then to get a sense of what cologne he apparently uses...not that Rohan committed that to memory.
or went to the department store swiftly after to sample every single option they had available, looking for a match, until he developed a headache.)
when Rohan glances, he finds the sketchpad left aside on the console table by the sofa, something he had deposited momentarily when returning from a jaunt through town to sketch that eerie boulder, the Angelo Stone. it's the same sketch pad he's brought with him out on those instances of meeting Jotaro — Rohan assumes he's observant enough to recognize, and therefore, pose his question. )
I don't draw in this room. I don't care for the lighting, and my office is where I keep my reference materials.
But I did take it with me to observe Angelo Stone this morning. I have a suspicious feeling about that boulder, and I don't recall it being here when I lived in Morioh as a child.
( Rohan takes the sketching pad, rather large, but not his most sizable book, and sets his nearly empty glass down in its place. ) I know you don't make useless small talk. Curious about it? ( Jotaro is one of a very few people in this town that has not asked to see his work, or claim to not have knowingly seen it before — but Jotaro has seen him sketch plenty enough by now. this is the first time he has made an effort to ask, and...it wouldn't be Rohan to refuse himself a little peacocking to the man more stone-like than that Angelo fixture piece downtown. )
no subject
He...decides not to explain it yet, partially as intentional choice and partially because Rohan's commentary has a point it's getting to, which means it's unforgiving in its pacing. 'I know you don't make useless small talk', and it's nice to be seen without judgment, about that. Rohan's tone is simply stating facts.
The common silence between them is appreciated by both of them, Jotaro's noticed. It's still surprisingly nice to hear it implied so clearly in words. Rohan's noticed.
Jotaro nods, briefly, hand already back at his side. He's never tried to take up extra space - he takes up plenty as it is, threatens things in his vicinity simply by existing. Left to his own devices near others, Jotaro withdraws for many reasons, but some of them are the simple fact that even moving often makes him seem like he's encroaching on another's space.
But there is an invitation in the words, and Jotaro is curious, and Rohan has never once flinched from him and-- Jotaro leans in, just a little, to look at it. He wants to reach a hand out for it. He doesn't. ] Yes. [ Simple, to the point.
Maybe the alcohol, or the company, is why he keeps going. ] I've never seen what you draw when it isn't your manga. [ Truthfully, he's hardly seen what Rohan draws when it is his manga. What Jotaro means is he can't guess what it is Rohan draws when it isn't for work, and...
And suddenly, he finds himself curious. ]