dies_irate | pumpkin hollow: ic inbox

There's a sound like he's about to speak before he reconsiders.

"...is he gonna- I mean-

"I won't freak him out, will I?"

That earns John a baffled look. "No, why would you?"

Some of the grump returns, but it's just as clearly not about Yellow.

"I don't know! You look like that. I don't."

Oh.

Something else starts to register. John is-- he might be, maybe-- it's possible John might be self-conscious too.

The human face vanishes like smoke, body going opaque and swirling into a long cloak in changing shades of yellow. The cracked and piecemeal mask under its hood mostly hides an interstellar darkness. The tentacles are sometimes black, sometimes coming from under and around the hem of the cloak, sometimes tinted yellow and coming from the edges of the cloth itself. After a second, he figures out how to scale it up again, roughly matching John's height.

"I-I didn't look like that... when I got here. Not all the time. I had to work hard to make myself look human, and it still slipped sometimes."

Edited 2024-12-20 06:50 (UTC)

John's going to be quiet for a moment, listening, before-

"How did you- that is, why is it that you look like that?" A pause before he clarifies. "I mean, how did you choose to have, I don't know, brown hair or a nose that shape or eyes that color?"

Existential crisis incoming in 3, 2...

"I don't... know." He hadn't thought about it actually. Just like he hadn't thought about where his body came from in the first place, when Arthur asked. He lifts several tentacles to stare at them like they're palms. Like he can read some answers there. "I..."

Why that shape? It just felt right. It was a shape the matter remembered, with touches of Arthur's physicality changing what was already there. It was Larson's body, once, or the cells that made it were his, and they have their own strange kind of memory.

Not that Yellow knows that.

"I'm not sure."

Which makes one question what, exactly, John's is made of. He certainly doesn't know. He's just glad this seems to be working and he's not going to question it.

"So it can look like anything. O-or anyone."

John doesn't frown, because he can't really frown, but there's the feeling of a frown. It's obvious he'll think about it.

"I should probably adopt some sort of human looking appearance. If only so that people don't mistake me for a monster."

That had definitely happened a time or two. There's a reason he kept a shopping basket looped on one arm. It's because monsters don't usually do the shopping. Though he'll have to go retrieve that now...

Yellow hesitates, pulled from his train of thought and back into the moment, then clears his currently nonexistent throat.

"I can. Stay this way too. While you figure it out. So people get used to it more."

He shakes his head.

"That's not necessary. You should look how you normally look here. That way, if someone freaks out, you can explain that I don't intend to harm anyone." A sigh. "I'll figure something out soon."

He gets a strange twinge of disappointment and brushes it off.

"How will you figure it out?"

He reminds himself (carefully) not to grumble, not to growl. Yellow got the worst of Arthur, and he doesn't need to aggravate that.

...even if he doesn't want that question.

"I'm working on that," he says smoothly, because it's the truth. He'll figure something out. And if he can't, he'll talk to Arthur about it.

There's a pause, a scribble of emotions inside him, but he asks anyway.

"If you learn... I'll- I'll do something to earn it, pay for it, but if you learn- I want to know how."

He just did what felt familiar.

Something in him rebels at the idea.

"No," he says plainly. Then he finds the solution after a moment of scrabbling. "I never would have tried to turn into an animal if it wasn't for seeing you do it. So... it's only fair for me to share."

He doesn't owe Yellow, because Yellow wasn't trying to teach him anything. He was being a dick. But he'll use it now.

He hears 'no' and there's an immediate cascade of guesses about why and what Yellow did wrong or if John already knows and is hiding it or if he wants to learn and then use the knowledge over Yellow-

And then he realizes that John wasn't saying 'no' to that part, as he keeps going.

"...Really?"

The answer is a positive grunt.

"Really. Besides, why wouldn't I show you?"

Well now he's embarrassed. "I... I don't know."

Because his instinct would be to hide it, and it isn't until he's confronted with the question that he realizes how pointless and mean it would be.

"Right," and his tone says he feels like the topic is exhausted. All done. He'll share once he's figured 'something' out.

"I- I don't want you to stay away from me."

He wants to make that clear, even if John is obviously Done.

"I don't want that. I was- scared. You'd hate me. And that Arthur would because you came."

And before John can reply to that aloud, Yellow shoots into the air in another winged retreat. A crow this time. No backdraft.

"Okay."

And he'd been about to say more, because the topic was done, Yellow, they could talk about other things, he's just not going to discuss why he'd tell you things because Why Wouldn't He-

And then Yellow is fleeing.

[ Running away like I'm going to hurt you doesn't make me feel like you want to see me! ] Just so you know, Yellow. Goddammit.

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