IC Inbox - Ryslig

[blap_blap]

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, TIMOTHY LAWRENCE. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 011.11.201.45 *** mrhandsome69 has joined 011.11.201.45 <USERNAME> First sentence of message. <BANNED USER> SCREENED MESSAGE. UNSCREEN? Y/N -- sample for when you ban someone <USERNAME> First sentence of message. <USERNAME> First sentence of message.

Comments

[blap_blap]

honestly i probably should tell you before you see it for yourself

so uh fair warning i guess

how do you feel about multiple faces? like. three? and one of them i think is just a weird glowing skull, because i guess the fog god just hates me or something i'll just add her onto the list

i look like something that crawled out of a vault's asshole, this is fine

[This is not fine.]

[justbeingknife]

yknow before this went down I was going to invityou over so why don't ya just come over now?

I'll show you the other thing if ya promose not to laugh

[blap_blap]

would i laugh at you?

and uh not to be super critical but are you okay? you’re kind of more

typo-y

than usual?

[justbeingknife]

it's hard to control my shadow when I try the computer goe son the fritz

lets' order in
i don't wanna go outside it looks like it might rain

[blap_blap]

that sounds good to me, I don’t really want to be in public right now anyway. you’ll get it when you see me.

[Tim knocked when he got to Majima’s door, because he’s polite or whatever. Also? He took up most of the doorway with his bulk, because in addition to the usual amount of beefcake, he’d also shot up a good foot with these new transformations. He’d already had to go out once today just to get some freaking pants that actually fit, and he super didn’t want to repeat the experience of being gawked at.]

[Plus, there was the whole three faces thing. And wings, even if they looked busted and were continually dropping delicate, glass-like feathers, and glowing eyes, and eridium-purple marks winding their way across whatever skin he had left. The glowing vault symbol halo behind his head. The scar cutting across his face, searing bright purple and a near identical duplicate to the one under Jack’s mask.]

Hi. [He sounded only kind of miserable. He was big and there were barely any clothes out there that fit him and he looked more than a little like the very same vault guardian that he’d taken down on Elpis. Almost as though this was karmic retribution, his just reward for going into a vault.] Sorry, I, uh. I’ll try to be careful, I kinda take up a lot of space.

[justbeingknife]

[ The door opened into darkness. Which was a dramatic way of saying that the lights at Majima's place were dimmed. His silhouette wasn't much changed, but most of his fur had gone white and oddly fine, and there was also the fact that he'd developed a kind of shadowy aura all over him and his eye was kind of glowing white?

When he looked at Tim, that eye was drawn to the man's face first of all; a shadowy tendril reached up toward it to run just under the arc of that scar at the very same time. As soon as he noticed what was happening, the tendril would pull back in lieu of him reaching out a soft-furred hand to tug his boyfriend inside by the hand. ]

It's no problem. Come on. Careful with your wings.

[ So this was a new experience. A Tim who was taller than him and also shedding glassy feathers. ]

Does it hurt?

[blap_blap]

[The touch of Majima's shadowy limb was soft, barely there, under the curve of the vault brand, seemingly without much input from Majima himself. He'd mentioned that it was hard for him to control his shadow, and he must not have been exaggerating, considering how quickly he tugged it back when he noticed what it was doing. As always, Tim followed after Majima easily, hardly needing to be pulled much to come inside. He had to duck, of course, and fold up his wings tightly against his back to make it through the door, but that was only to be expected when you were just an inch or so shy of seven feet.]

The scar?

[He could lie. He could tell Majima that he didn't feel it at all, just so that he wouldn't be worried. But he shouldn't lie to his boyfriend, and, anyway, who was going to understand eye injuries better than him?]

...Yeah. It does. [He tapped his cheek underneath the left eye, the one bisected by the brand.] I don't see very well out of this eye. Just shapes and light.

[justbeingknife]

[ Majima shut the door behind him. For a moment, he was reminded of what Makoto had told him under those harsh sodium lights. About how she could tell he was there, but not much else. Maybe something of that thought showed in the way he looked at Tim afterwards, like he was shaking off some memory of the past as he motioned for Tim to follow him to the living room. ]

You weren't kiddin'. I can fetch ya something for the pain, if ya like.

[ It looked painful. But at this point? He was just sort of glad that Tim was here, not at Casa de Asshole. And at least the couch was still big enough for them. ]

Listen, I can try not to keep the feelers away, but it's kinda... I dunno how cooperative they're going to be. They seem like they want to reach for anything I think about.

[ And true to his word, those tendrils did seem to be simultaneously both sweeping to the side and curling back in, as if interested in Tim but barred from getting too close. ]

I kinda want to touch you [ when didn't he ], but I understand if ya want some distance.

[blap_blap]

I don't know if it'll help, but I guess it doesn't hurt to try.

[There wasn't much that helped Jack's brand, not even surgery, like the vault device that had been punched into his face had... altered something on a fundamental level. Something that can't be undone.]

[In the dim light, he felt kind of foggy, a little hazy at the edges, both in his brain and physically. Like he'd been gaussian blurred. More weirdness from his new monster bits. Thanks, fog god, he hated it.]

It's fine. I mean, when have I not wanted you to touch me?

[If it was Majima, it was fine. Sure, the shadow tentacles were a new weirdness, but it was still his boyfriend and Tim never minded it when he got his hands on him. So, really, same thing, just more appendages to do the touching with. He reached out and ran his fingers along one of the curling, impatient tendrils, just to see what they felt like.]

But, uh, I call big spoon.

[justbeingknife]

[ Majima grinned in answer, then turned to carefully snag a tube with one of the ribbonlike appendages just as Tim reached out for one of the others. ]

Wha --

[ This time, it was like touching something soft and smooth and cool, something like the surface of water that wasn't wet. The tendril rippled along its length, curling around Tim's fingers, and Majima shivered a little in reflexive response. ]

That feels weird. [ So far, Majima had mostly kept to his place, not tried to interact with anything or anyone that might want to turn around and touch him. When the turns tabled, the quality of the sensation was apparently different. ] But... good weird.

[ He came in towards Tim, unscrewing the cap on the tube while more of the tendrils curled in towards his boyfriend. There were somewhere between 7-10 of them; one curled across Tim's cheek, another reached over his shoulder to touch the base of a wing or respond to Tim's outstretched hand. ]

Hey, is it just me or did ya get blurry like one of those 'monster photos'?

[ Timothy Lawrence, literal cryptid. ]

[blap_blap]

[The tendril felt... weird, smooth and cool in a way that made Tim's palm tingle a little. It tangled itself up with his fingers in a manner that he kind of got the impression wasn't a conscious decision, like it had a mind of its own and that mind really liked Tim.]

Yeah, you, uh, you kind of feel weird? But not bad.

[Really liked him, apparently, because he had multiple tendrils winding their way around him, touching his face and his arms and even back to his wings, like a very affectionate octopus or something. It was almost sweet?]

I did?

[He looked down at himself, and, yeah-- the edges to his limbs, to his whole body kind of looked fuzzed out, like a slightly unfocused photograph.]

Oh. That's... a thing. Uh. I'm not really sure what to make of that? [Other than that he wouldn't need a filter for selfies. His skin probably looked great right now.] It doesn't hurt or anything, so I guess it's fine?

[justbeingknife]

Maybe it's got to do with the lights. I had to turn 'em down because I kept fading.

[ He reached over to touch the tip of a finger to Tim's face, applying a kind of numbing cream that smelled faintly medicinal. Unusually, his fingers were covered in short fur, but sported no claws. Or rather, his claws were retracted, and the pad of the fingertip that traced over Tim's scar was strangely soft. In fact, if anything, it felt like a cat's toe bean. ]

Hope this's a little better. I'm gonna have to refill my kit soon.

[ He sounded affectionate as he said it, though, and at the end, he'd plant a kiss on the tip of Tim's nose. His, uh... main nose? ]

[blap_blap]

Oh, yeah, I guess I'm super glowy now. Maybe I get fuzzy if there isn't enough light around?

[If they could keep things at a happy medium, maybe it could be comfortable enough for both of them. Light enough so that Tim wasn't turning into an abstract painting, dark enough that Majima wasn't getting bleached out.]

[Tim leaned over a little to let Majima have access to his face and closed his eyes while Majima applied the medicine. The cream was cool and had a sharp kind of herbal scent to it and felt soothing on the persistent angry ache of the vault scar. Majima was a pretty gentle nurse when he wanted to be; he even kissed it better.]

Thanks. I think that helped a little. [Maybe it'll help more the longer he leaves it on. Can't hurt, right?] Should I be worried that you're burning through your first aid kit?

[justbeingknife]

[ Outside, a light pattering had started, and Majima was reminded of that recent little rainy spell they'd spent in the back of the old car. Hey, prude ghost aside, it had been a pretty good time. He laughed. ]

Nah, mostly people sproutin' wings and so on.

[ As he screwed the cap back on the tube, a tendril slid lightly over Tim's shoulder and over the dip of his clavicle... and then he froze. ]

Shit. Wait here.

[ Aaand now he was turning and running about fifteen feet for the door out to the balcony. Someone familiar with apartment living might recognize the universal rush of a man who'd left something to dry just as the sky really opened up. Even if things had gone as planned, that poor comforter would have been soaked.

Things didn't go as planned, though. There was a clatter and the sound of cloth tearing, and if Tim made his way over to investigate, he'd find that maybe his boyfriend hadn't quite gotten off so easy after all, as below the waist his body seemed to have been replaced by a collection of spotted octopus tentacles. Cream and brown, sprawling in all directions as Majima maintained a death grip on the railing and the soaked blanket with one hand, just kind of staring into the middle distance. ]

...What.

[blap_blap]

[Oh, yeah, that was the universal expression of a guy who'd left his laundry to dry on the balcony and forgot about it until it started raining. Tim had been there before, when he'd actually lived planetside, and it was a pain to have to find a place to dry things indoors or scrounge up the quarters to go to a laundromat.]

[But there was definitely more commotion out on that balcony than there should have been for a man just getting his laundry. When Tim stuck his head out to check on him, well... it was pretty apparent what had happened. Majima's lower half was a sea of tentacles, and he had the thousand yard stare of a Vietnam vet.]

Hey, are you-- oh.

[Well, Tim couldn't say that he didn't understand the feeling. Thanks, fog god, they both hate it. He offered a hand to Majima, so that he'd have something to grab onto that wasn't the railing and they could maybe start getting him inside. The only thing worse than sudden monster changes was being soaked with new monster bits.]

Mazel tov, you're half octopus. [He's helping.] Here, come on, don't stay out in the rain. You'll catch a cold or something.

[justbeingknife]

I can't --

[ And then he sneezed, because of course he did; one tentacle reached out reflexively to squeeze the comforter while he was at it. ]

Believe this.

[ He reached a hand out to take Tim's, but there seemed to be a problem. Unlike his legs, which were cool and did what he told them, Majima's new lower half seemed to be even more unruly than the tendrils had been. Or maybe it was just that they had actual physical suckers to grip the balcony rail with, which Majima hadn't even figured out how to work yet.

He tried, though. One of the tentacles peeled off and reached toward the doorway. The remaining seven did whatever the fuck they wanted; one wrapped around Tim's ankle, another started exploring the side of a potted plant. ]

I don't think... I can walk.

[ Bipedal motion was easy. Left foot, right foot. But what the fuck did you do when you had eight legs and seven of them wanted to be on break at Scoops Ahoy, what then. ]

[blap_blap]

[Well, Majima was definitely having some unruly limb issues. At least the tendrils would kind of listen to him when he paid attention to them; these tentacles just seemed to not give a fuck what Majima wanted them to do.]

Um. Okay. [Tim ducked his head and walked out onto the balcony with him.] I, uh, I could try picking you up? Would that maybe help?

[Take the whole limb thing out of the movement equation. Sure, his legs would have to unstick themselves from the balcony railing, but maybe they would just decide to stick onto Tim instead. Which was kind of its own problem, but at least they could have that problem inside, where it was dry.]

[And since Tim wasn't exactly a huge fan of getting soaked, he raised his wings up like a canopy over them. The feathers themselves had a sort of gauzy, transparent look to them, but they were solid enough when it came to water.]

[justbeingknife]

[ Gosh, Tim was such a considerate guy, using his own wings like a giant feathery umbrella. If he wasn't sporting three faces at the moment, it would have been romantic. Maybe it still was?

One of the tentacles wound up and over Tim's shoulder, pulling Majima's body up enough so that he could reach up and just curl his hand up around the back of the man's neck. After that, more limbs would slowly follow. It felt soft and even velvety, that limb, but when those octopus muscles flexed it was fairly obvious that he could probably also snap a shark spine in half or some shit.

Majima's tendrils had liked Tim. Apparently, his new arms (legs??) were also very fond of him. Ordinarily, he'd be a little wary of someone suggesting they pick him up, but you know what? ]

I'd like that.

[ It sort of also occurred to him that Tim was like a foot taller and also had big, strong, arms? How could this be a bad thing, really. ]

I splurged on a new tub, you can just... y'know. Dump me in there. It's big enough for two people.

[blap_blap]

[Majima's tentacles definitely seemed to be fond of him; after that first tentacle wrapped around his shoulder and started hoisting the rest of him into Tim's waiting arms, the others followed after. They didn't feel bad, though the sensation of suckers on his skin was definitely odd, like rows of hickies. There was definitely a lot of strength in them, enough that Majima could've definitely hurt him if he'd been so inclined. Made sense-- octopi ate things like snails and crustaceans, right? Stuff with shells that needed to be smashed through. It'd make sense that they'd be strong for their size, and that a man-sized one would be very strong.]

Okay, I've got you.

[His boyfriend's weight wasn't a problem, he still felt about as heavy as hefting a bag of flour, but the addition of tentacles instead of legs provided a unique logistical conundrum. Normally, he would just carry Majima over the threshold like he was the world's most stony faced yakuza bride, but tentacles kind of nixed that option. So he just kind of tried to support his boyfriend's octopus lower half as much as he could with one arm and have the other wrapped around his back, holding him to his chest.]

[As he was getting Majima through his apartment and towards the bathroom, he started to notice that, well. Those tentacles really liked him. One of them was definitely going down the collar of his shirt, and another was most likely attempting to get down the back of his pants.]

Hey, uh, Gorō? Your, uh. Your tentacles are getting a little fresh with me? I wouldn't usually mind but I don't want to, y'know, drop you?

[justbeingknife]

Sorry.

[ Majima sounded a little distracted with his face pressed up against the side of Tim's neck. But why wouldn't he be? God, Tim just picked him up like it was nothing -- which made sense, of course. The man could bench-press a couch with ease, but look, Majima had never been on that couch.

To his credit, he did try to call off his tentacles. His tentacles, what a world. The friskiest of them settled for simply skating over Tim's clothing for the moment, maybe giving his ass a little complimentary squeeze. Majima's own surviving clothes were mostly soaked; he'd popped a few buttons at the bottom and no doubt if he didn't get out of them pretty soon, he'd have to worry about catching a chill. Probably Tim, too, since he was essentially holding a wet wolftopus against his body like a sack of flour.

Anyway. In the bathroom was a tall cedar wood tub and yep. Plenty big enough to accommodate a merwolf. And guest. ]

I really like baths.

[ He said, like Tim had definitely asked. Man, he was feeling a little thirsty. ]

Can ya kinda just slide me in?

[blap_blap]

[Tim's front was definitely getting wet from the wet wolftopus that he was holding, which was fine, he didn't mind. The tentacles even kind of were behaving themselves, even if one of them was still getting kind of fresh with his butt. That was fine, though, Tim didn't mind much if there was a tentacle kind of squeezing his ass.]

[Majima really did have an impressive tub, though. Tall, made of some lovely reddish wood, big enough for two people, even if one of those people was unreasonably large. Tim shifted his grip on Majima so that he could reach the taps and start running the water; it would be kind of rude to just dump him into an empty tub.]

So, uh, how warm should this be? I don't know what temperatures are okay for an octopus. Or a half-octopus? Werewolftopus? God, I don't know.

[But he could still keep right on holding him like this for as long as he had to. It was fine, he wasn't terribly heavy and minotaur were unreasonably endowed with... stamina.]

Do you want me to help you get out of your clothes before I put you in?

[justbeingknife]

I don't know. I like it nice and hot, y'know. Normally.

[ Once he was close enough to the edge, his tentacles started to reach out to the tub. One even made for the hot water tap to turn it on as the others began to detach from Tim, feeling along the deep ruddy wood instead. ]

Sure, but I don't think I've got too many buttons left on this shirt.

[ There was a pause as Majima shifted his arm around Tim's shoulders. ]

You're coming in, too, right?

[blap_blap]

[The tentacles seemed eager to get into the bath, but the rest of Majima seemed pretty content where it was, held in Tim's strong, beefy arms. And, really, Tim kind of liked holding him like this? Even if his tentacles were a little handsy, it was nice to be appreciated, and carrying him around did kind of make him feel strong.]

[Majima seemed secure enough, too, that he could keep his arm free to help unbutton his shirt the rest of the way. Might as well take it off before it got wet in the tub, right?]

Hm? Oh, yeah, sure. It's been a long time since I've taken a bath.

[Baths weren't super popular on space stations. And, well, nobody's getting a freaking bath on Pandora, bandits weren't known for their excellent personal hygiene. Which was, like, a problem. But, god, the idea of having a nice bath and maybe a book to read while he was in it? Amazing.]

[Once he got Majima's shirt situated and the tub was getting full, he'd deposit his half-aquatic boyfriend in the water.]

How's the temperature? Warm enough?

[justbeingknife]

[ Majima seemed satisfied with this answer and, once his shirt was off, seemed more than content to wait in Tim's strong, beefy arms as the tub filled. ]

I can't remember the last time someone carried me.

[ Idly, one of his tentacles found its way over one of Tim's exposed biceps, clearly fond in its manner... if one could ascribe emotions to a tentacle, that was. ]

You're so strong.

[ Or maybe it was just reacting to Majima's overall sentiment. One way or another, he usually ended up taking care of other people, and Majima didn't mind -- it was only right to offer that support when he was the one with the means to give it. But today? Good thing Tim had been here to pull him out of the rain, or he might have had to drag himself across the floor, mutinous limbs in tow. As the first of his arms touched the water, they spread out, curling and looping and stretching out; one or two, however, remained touching Tim's thigh and wrapped loosely around his waist.

Majima let out an enormously satisfied sigh as he settled in, white-furred arms extended up behind his head while his claws slipped in and out a couple of times. Then he settled, leaning up against the side of the tub. ]

It's perfect, thanks. Come over here so I can help ya get your clothes off.

[ Yeah. Come on down, you juicy beef slab. ]

[blap_blap]

[Though most of Majima's tentacles went with him into the water, one or two of them stayed wrapped around Tim, like they were trying to coax him into following. Which was fine, Tim was planning on getting into the water anyway, so Majima's rogue limbs just needed to be a little patient.]

[At his boyfriend's insistence, Tim stepped up to the side of the tub so that he was within reach, pulling off his shirt and having to fight with it a little bit because wings made everything difficult. God, he wished he had just his usual beef monster bits, extra appendages were so complicated.]

I really could've done without the wings. [The shirt got tossed aside.] I don't even like heights, it's not like I'm gonna use them. Kinda seems like a waste to stick them on me.

[Once all of his clothes were off, it was into the tub for this monster mash. The water was deliciously hot, and Tim sighed as he sank down into it like the hunk of beef he was. He reached for Majima, because, well, if he was going to be a seven foot tall hunk of monster, they might as well take advantage of it and use him like a big bath pillow, right?]

Hey, c'mere.