[OPEN]

[shiitan]

Who: Ross and you!
What: After nearly two weeks of reading and work, Ross is ready to test his new tincture. On himself.
When: March 24
Where: Out and about in the Far Shore.
Warnings: Does Ross himself count as a warning Should be none, but I'll edit if anything comes up.

It had taken him a little while to find a suitable clearing, but here would just have to do. After one last glance around, Ross produced a tiny bottle from his pocket, which was filled with an almost sickly green liquid. Well. There wasn't much else to do other than test it on himself. Asking someone else to be his guinea pig for this wasn't an option, as tempting as it was to give it to Gintoki for throwing that rock at him. Ross downed the whole thing in one go, only to almost spit it back out again. So bitter! He would have to add sugar or something to the next batch. A lot of sugar. He wasn't particularly looking forward to choking down something that tasted like that every time he needed some mana...

Finally, he held his hand out, and focused. Doing this felt unfamiliar and familiar at the same time, but nevertheless, a glowing yellow ball appeared, floating just above his palm. It was a success, but he showed no happiness or even recognition of the fact on the outside. Next, he extended his arm and made a gate, although to anyone else it would just look like a pitch black hole had opened in the air. Ross simply hopped inside like it was nothing, and disappeared along with the gate.

...The only problem with that was he would be reappearing somewhere else out of nowhere, and then probably get in someone's way.

Comments

[shiitan]

[Falling into the hot spring when he wasn't expecting it was pretty uncomfortable in more ways than one. Too hot! Not to mention that he could only manage words after coughing and trying in vain to wipe the water out of his face.]

Hold on, I'm still trying to recover after you almost drowned me just now.

[And there was a particularly sour look to go with those words, too.]

[pachintoki]

Don't be ridiculous. I was trying to shove you back in, oi.

[He really was, but only to be mean. He'll retreat to the other end of the onsen, sinking down in the water until just his eyes were showing, and he'll scowl back with his ears twitching. But then he's curious.]

Just what the hell was that you were doing, hah?

[shiitan]

[Ross ended up getting out anyway as Gintoki retreated, looking not unlike a disgruntled wet cat. His attention was drawn by that question though, despite his first thought being that he was glad that he didn't also have ears like those.]

Testing my magic. [To prove that he wasn't joking about that, he made a loose fist, and it glowed a light blue.] It still needs work.

i'm gonna catch 'em all I swear

[pachintoki]

[He'll open his mouth as if to say something, but then he'll quickly force it into a yawn. No. He wasn't allowed to ask his shinki about their past lives, right? They weren't allowed to remember, and Ross was no different. He wasn't going to actively cause him grief on that kind of level.

He'll set his arms on the edge of the onsen, looking at Ross over them.
]

Since when do you have magic, huh? How did you even find that out?

[The question is pretty casual. Ross might not be able to pick up on Gintoki's concern, but he could.]

you're gonna be a tagémon master

[shiitan]

I've always had magic. It just didn't work until now. [...Right? Yeah, of course. He just knew on instinct he had that power when he arrived, so he must have always been able to use it. The truth was much more complicated than that, but he wasn't thinking about whether there was any other explanation for it.]

There were books about mana tinctures in the school's library, so I used those. [Unbeknownst to Ross, he had no such tincture on him when he died. Fortunately, the only thing he was wondering about was where those questions were coming from.]