#he's a Silver Arowana

[thefrogman2]

[shinystealingbirb]

I wanted to figure out if Yona actually likes us.

Quick notice before we begin: It's extremely hard to figure out what Link's thinking, so I won't even try on that front. Sidon's perspective has been debated back and forth for the year or so that totk has been out, and for even longer during botw, so I'm only gonna skim over his. Yona is the one I'm most interested in.

Alright! everything else is below the cut!

Yona.

I care about two things with Yona, and they're the two things that motivate the Player's interactions with her. The first interaction (her style of speech) and the Zora armor.

So far, the basic things we know about Yona is that she's from a Domain outside of Hyrule. She looks like a moray, like Mizu, suggesting that Dorephan's wife might have also been from outside Hyrule, and Mizu just stuck around as an envoy. She wears gold instead of silver, as do her attendants. She speaks English- the only Zora we know of that speaks English.

What I find more interesting than this is the fact that we don't actually know when Link met her, or if he even knew of her existance before he arrived. I'm going to assume he's been to Zora's Domain plenty during the seven year gap between games, but when the Player first meets Yona, she doens't have a nametag. Link doesn't seem to recognize her.

She talks in a more formal way than most of the Zora, who talk to each other like they're extended family. She even talks to her attendants that way, so I'm assuming her Domain is a fair bit more political than ours, and she's used to double meanings and stuff. Which is interesting for worldbuilding, but just something to keep a note of for our interactions with Yona. Because cheerful does not mean interested in our interactions.

But despite Link not recognizing her at all, despite her being foreign to Hyrule, she has our damaged Zora armor. She knows where the rest of it is. She was trying to gift us the full set.

I'm gonna assume everyone knows the significance of Link's Zora armor, especially the chestpiece. Given that it seems Yona arrived just before the Upheaval, and that the Player had no idea who she was, I don't think Link gave it to her to repair. I think he gave it to Sidon, being the Zora Link has the best relationship with, to fix. And apparently, it found its way to Yona, probably because Sidon's been stuck at Mipha Court the entire time. Which means Link's probably immediately on guard, as I was, about the fact this random person has my really important armor.

Nevertheless, Yona treats it really well, and by extension, us. If she were being passive agressive, she could have replaced the damaged scales with another Zora's scales. Or, if she feared consequences from other Zora a bit more, replaced it with a lower-quality fish's scales. But she doesn't. She specifically asks for ancient arowana, which isn't easy to find. She acknowledges the armor as "treasured" and "precious" and says, "I'm honored to reunite you with this armor." Usually her language is pretty neutral, so her actual meaning can swing either way. This time, she's using only positive language, and it's clear that she respects the meaning of the armor, knows where it came from, and what it means to Link.

She had plenty of chances to be an ass when it came to the armor. She also didn't have to tell us where the Zora pants were, or instruct her attendants to get the Zora headpiece. But Yona did, so we can call the armor a decent show of goodwill.

Yona likes us. At the very least, she approves of us, because during the armor quests, she uses mostly positive language. Yippee. We got approval from the harder of the two Zora to read.

and now a quick note about sidon.

I'm not going to touch on the ambiguous will they/won't they relationship that nintendo may or may not be hanging over this. What I care about with Sidon is whether he cares about us as a friend or an idol.

I say idol as a person one might look up to, I should mention.

So in the first game, Link is recognized as Mipha's "friend", and thats enough for Sidon to trust us and hang around. I mean, if your big sister, who you absolutely adore, had a friend, what do you do? Steal said friend. By which I mean make friends with that friend. Link is kind of an object of mystery here, and when Sidon lets us ride on his back, it's more like riding a horse than anything. He's actively making himself a tool at our disposal- not an even partnership by any means, but it does require a significant degree of trust.

Tears of the Kingdom... well, it has the new statue, which shows this part of Botw. If Sidon still thinks of Link this way, by which I mean constantly looking up to Link and idolizing him, not as "miphas fiance" but "cool dude who did cool shit," it's a little more balanced, but still uneven.

However, he treats us more like a friend when we actually go talk to him. He lets us talk to him and break his concentration, which actually says a lot. The other Zora are posted far enough away that it sort of discourages conversation, because this guy is a hundred percent focused and definitely stressed and definitely tired, cause hes been up there since the Upheaval happened. But Sidon chats with us, he opens up the waterways, and he defends us. We're clearly included in people he cares about, but it's hard to say whether that category is friend, idol, or boyfriend.

i dunno, just thought itd be interesting to point some of these out idk.

[mint-leaves-in-coffee]

some fun twst questions for u <3

[i'm sending these to random ppl, feel free to answer if you see this and/or tag/send it to another person!]

would you be a mer, a beastman, a fae, or a human? (or other!)

would you be at rsa or nrc?

what dorm would you belong to?

what character(s) would you be best friends with?

what character(s) would you hate?

what character(s) would you date?

what would floyd’s nickname be for you?

and rook’s?

what twst character(s) are you most like? (personality-wise)

which subject(s) do you think you would excel at?

what club would you join?

how do you think you would survive in twisted wonderland/what would your life be like in general?

[optional!] what would your unique magic be?

I have a fae pref tbh. It's the pointy ears for me. Though being a beastman doesn't sound too bad

NRC probably. Goth moment

I feel like either Diasomnia or Ignihyde. On one hand I'm an introverted tech god that panics at the sight of another human being, and hyperfixates on the stuff I work on with a major perfectionism issue. But on the other hand I was the "gifted" prodigy kid growing up so I was all top marks and 'smart kid' classes. Seeing as Diasomnia is the dorm where every excels at magic and classes then that also fits, but my dumbass went from a 4.0 in high school to a fucking 2.6 in college because I stopped caring about my grades.

Uhh shit. I'm not sure. I go out of my way to avoid talking to people at all costs unless they talk to me first. Extroverts scared me and rapidly drain my social battery. So I couldn't really be friends with Cater, Rook, or Kalim. Ace and Deuce would be tolerable in small amounts. In the long run I feel like I'd vibe with Trey, Jade (though I feel like he and Floyd are a packaged deal and Floyd would probably be too much for me to handle if I were to be around him too much), Azul (maybe), Jamil, Idia (gaming buddies probably), Malleus and Silver

I want to pummel both Riddle and Vil. I am not sorry. Sebek is on thin fucking ice

Laughs in Leona, Malleus, and Jamil simp

Only thing I can think of off the top of my head is Arowana. They're mostly solitary and can be extremely aggressive when it comes to defending their space. Which... same bestie....

I don't know and frankly I don't want to know or give him the chance to give me one 👍🏻

I'm a mixture of several of them lol. Mostly Idia's shyness and video game obsessions, Riddle's anger issues, Leona's laziness, but also Trey's whole parental figure thing, and Kalim's airheadness

Magical history or alchemy. History was always one of my best subjects in school. As far as alchemy goes, I'm equating it with science and I am a biology major.

Science club :3c

My life would probably be pretty mundane, just like it already is. I go to school and work at a restaurant I ain't got much goin' tbh. Maybe the occasional stupid antic from Ace or Deuce if I feel like tolerating them

I would prefer something healing based? I'm a healer main in most every game I play and I just wanna be isekai'd into a fantasy world to be the doctor/apothecary (or the merchant NPC but thats irrelevant).

[hostagine]

Kyoya once was sold an Asian Arowana fish. He thought it was a regular silver Arowana. (Which is what the salesman told him). To this day, he doesn't know who snitched on him, but he eventually had to give up the fish because someone found out it was an endangered breed and was illegal for him to have. He still complains about it. - He really liked that fish.

The Ouran newspaper club somehow found out about the whole ordeal and spread the rumor around the school that Kyoya was a 13yo fish smuggler. But nobody believed it.

[broken-clover]

Illyria Aquarium- STRIVE Edition

I realized with the newest release officially coming out that I’d never gotten around to updating this AU with the newest characters! Though in hindsight I am a little glad I waited, since it means I can incorporate some NPC’s and do a little more fleshing out of the story background!

Giovanna- silver arowana, a recent acquisition transferred from a facility in America. She is settling in nicely, though at times comes off as cold due to being unfamiliar with everything around her. Has a special tank, since much like full-body arowana, she is athletically gifted and capable of leaping very high out of water to catch prey. Though she has no reason to do so, she still shows a dislike for remaining idle and will fling herself above water seemingly only for her amusement and as a method of exercising

Rei- a full-body Brazilian whitetail dogfish that Giovanna is inexplicably attached to and was transferred with. Though mer mostly see full-body fish as simply food or potential predators, Giovanna treats Rei as a sort of pet, and Rei follows her around. Rei was hatched with a misshapen caudal fin and as a result frequently struggles to swim fast enough to capture prey. It is assumed that she would have starved a long time ago if not for Giovanna catching food for her.

Nagoriyuki- Sea Lamprey (I wanted to fins something geographically fitting, but in my searches I found neither a lamprey species that went anywhere near Nigeria or any hemophagic species in that area, either, though if anyone can correct me on that then his species is subject to change.) Nagoriyuki is known for his polite demeanor and stoicism. He is also, bizarrely enough, known for his obsession towards rice, despite its nutritional contents making it questionably healthy for mer. Unlike Slayer, who primarily feeds off Sharon, Nagoriyuki mainly feeds off of provided tank fish and pre-prepared blood packs. Though on rare occasions when he has been insufficiently fed, rather than attack his tankmates and bite them, he has been seen apparently requesting for their approval before drinking their blood.

And now, some humans!

‘The Original’/’Happy Chaos’- Officially little more than an office myth. But of course, there’s much more to it. ‘The Original’ was Asuka and Dr. Valentine's cohort who worked in the facility that eventually turned into Illyria Aquarium. While he was undeniably the most technically brilliant of the three and initially a very patient if quirky man, the repeated study failures and initial financial struggles of the facility gradually led him into being more volatile and hostile towards his co-workers. The economic difficulty and potential shutdown of the lab culminated in him going behind their backs, attempting to sell off several of the mer and their body parts on the black market, with the intention of framing Asuka for it and making off with a small fortune. He was caught before any of that could happen and was arrested, though he did attempt to murder Aria when she found him out, which was what eventually led to her breaking away from the facility to do her solo research, cutting off contact from Asuka for several years.

'Happy Chaos' is a nickname made up by Axl. Though he was out of the picture long before Raven and I-no were hired and Dr. Kreutz refuses to talk about him, there are still old business records from the facility's earliest days marked with the initials 'H.C.'

Goldlewis Dickinson- A city politician who mainly works with public facilities and finance budgeting. He's well-loved by the community due to being a strong judge of character and generally very down-to-earth and friendly. An infrequent aquarium patron who enjoys his visits, though somewhat famous/infamous for an incident where allegedly a tank wall burst and he actually managed to catch and pick up Potemkin after he fell out of the broken wall. Nobody knows if the story is true or not, though if you bring it up around him he'll get embarrassed.

-In the past few years, Vernon has come out of retirement and been convinced to get back into politics, and he and Erica Bartholomew are working together on their co-campaign. Despite being significantly busier, Erica still insists of visiting the aquarium every so often, and thanks to social media taking note of her visits, Chipp has incidentally become an unofficial icon of their campaign, both as a symbol of hard work and steadfastness, and as the subject of many, many memes.

[alphaimagine]

MERMAY MERMAID TYPES Class A

This is solely an excuse for me to nerd about fish and mermaids. Please forgive me for being so self indulgent. 

Midoriya: Rasbora Kubotai, lovely neon green tail with some blue-green and yellow scales highlighting the length of his fins. On the smaller side, tends to stay along the shoreline, hiding in the plant-life that grows there. Very friendly even with others not of his kind. 

Bakugo: Red Bellied Piranha, fiery red and orange tail with gray scales trailing up his belly and arms. High territorial, will fight God if given the opportunity. Doesn’t play nice with others unless they can prove their worth. 

Iida: Sailfish, tropical orange tail and can out swim nearly any other merfolk around. Has poor eyesight though, and tends to swim right into things if he isn’t watching where he’s going. 

Mina: Pink Gourami (Aka the Kissing fish) pearl pink tail and shimmer pink skin. She spends her days in the lush undergrowth, weaving together imitations of clothing shes seen humans wear. 

 Ochako: Bubble eye Goldfish. Shimmery orange tail and soft pink cheeks, she always looks like shes pouting about something. Loves to go exploring and tends to get into trouble for going too far away from safety. 

Denki: Electric eel, long slender gray-green tail and no fins. Super chill but will accidentally shock anyone who touches him. 

Momo: Platinum Arowana, long ghostly silver tail. Extremely elegant, and the stuff of legends. Fishermen have been trying to find her for years, having heard stories of the mermaid with the tail made of gold. 

Jiro: Spike fin Goby, crazy neon orange tail with two puffy fins. Keeps to herself unless she knows Momo is nearby. Enjoys swimming near boats that are blasting music. 

Aoyama: Half Moon Lace Guppy, obnoxiously bright red, yellow and orange tail with blue and green scales trailing up his belly and arms. Stands out no matter where he is and has been spotted far too many times by humans. 

Tsuyu: I don’t have a breed of fish for her, I see her as having a tadpole like tail since she is a frog after all. Lives in a large lake with her family, smart and adept at adapting to her surroundings.  

Kirishima: Reef Stonefish. Gray/Brown tail, very easy to overlook. The only merman that Bakugo won’t try to kill on sight. A chill dude who just wants to spend his days hunting. 

Ojiro: Sunburst Platy. Bright Orange and yellow tail. Somehow, even with such stunning colors, he seems to be overlooked by everyone around him. 

Shoji: Giant Pacific Octopus. Monster of a creature, easily hides and blends into things around himself. Scares off just about everyone who comes near him, even though he’s actually rather gentle. Fishermen avoid the area he’s hunts in, afraid of the ‘sea monster’ 

Fumikage: Black veil tail angelfish. Jet black tail that tappers into two long thin swirls. Hides in underwater caverns and likes to seem mysterious. Actually very sweet if you can lure him out long enough to befriend him. 

Shouto: Red and white fighting fish. Stunning half moon tail in vibrant red and nearly translucent white. Another beauty of the sea hunted by humans. 

Hagakure: Moon Jellyfish. Nearly invisible, not many have been able to even see her, let alone tell you what she looks like.

[desireneg]

Week 1-Concepts & Pitch

For my film this semester, I have two concept ideas that I would like to do as 2D films. One of which I had worked on since last semester in ACM 321 and one I developed last minute a week before the Pitch was due... (*ﾟ∀ﾟ*)

Concept 1:

My first concept, which is the one I worked on last semester, came about knowing I wanted to create a story personal to me. Also, because I like plants, I wanted my characters to be some kind of plant or of nature. I then decided on two characters being a flower and a ladybug. Then I used the “what if…” technique to come up with my concept and that is “what if a flower that was supposed to bloom didn’t want to open”

The story will follow a lone flower at the edge of a flower field, who when attacked by pests is saved by a ladybug. When the ladybug finds herself under attack by a bird, the flower gains the courage to bloom, thus overcoming her shyness to save the ladybug.

My hope for “Bloom” is to be a cute and heartwarming mutualism between a flower and a ladybug that deals with themes of loneliness, isolation, and is about overcoming one’s shyness by opening up to others.

Here are the character designs I had in mind for my two main characters:

Here are some background references of the painterly, impressionist style I want to go for:

Here are some still shots from my animatic:

Concept 2:

For my second concept, I also drew inspiration from personal experience. When I was a kid, my mom had a very long and beautiful silver Arowana fish. After that one died, we had a golden one that also died. Finally, we had a third and final Arowana fish that was also silver like our first one, which we unfortunately gave away because it was getting too big for our tank. My mom told me how our very first Arowana fish would try to jump out of the tank a lot, which she prevented by placing a heavy object on the lid. Upon further research, I learned they jump for two reasons: 1) food, and 2) because of stress when they outgrow their tank. Therefore, their instinct is to jump for freedom.

They are also known as Dragon fish due to their dragon shaped body and can come in a variety of colors. They are especially popular in Southeast Asia as they are believed to bring good luck and prosperity. Therefore, this fish is highly adored by many hobby aquarists. 

My second concept, possibly titled “Dragon Fish” or “Fish Out of Water,” would follow a man immersed in his aquarium hobby. He finds himself becoming a hermit and isolated from the world until his pet Arowana fish becomes too big that it wants to break free from its tank. The fish adopts a new form, a dragon form, to be able to fly freely in the sky.

My hope for this second concept is to tell a story about breaking free from one’s comfort zone and putting one’s self out there and enjoying what life has to offer.

Here are some visual references:

Here is a link to my Pitch:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1yg9502QNbMliZkUju6dYZmkAIcBOnebH4tF5_z4TWVA/edit?usp=sharing

[tonyhuynhart]

🐟 🌱 . Arowana pot. Oil on linen. 16 x 16 x 1.5 inches . . . . I remember one hot summer afternoon in a remote town in Vietnam, my family and I were visiting my distant uncle who had this one dragon looking creature in his aquarium tank. He said the strange looking fish was a silver arowana, meant for good luck and prosperity. I think I stared at that thing for at least an hour. I also remembered there were slices of mango chilled with ice cubes to go with our bowl of rice. . . . . #art #painting #oilpainting #plant #artistsoninstagram #artistsofinstagram #artsy #dailyart #artoftheday #artgram #instaart #artcollector #artwork #contemporaryart #contemporarypainting #fineart #abstractart https://www.instagram.com/p/CCMuA22hORW/?igshid=1665pzrf48e0p

[plant-that-tank]

LOVe watching the silver arowana catch crickets!

[shipsinks]

continuation of this post re  :  powers + emotions ( particularly strong anger / upset )

hx’s hair and robes always appear like he’s underwater when in his true form  ,  floating and / or gently moving as if with the movements of the sea.    this gets much stronger when he’s emotional  ,  like he’s under rougher  ,  choppier water.

as kim put it  ,  his hair does the ghibli effect(TM)

fishermen in the south sea have been known to encounter sudden storms when everything was previously perfectly calm.

the silver wave embroidery on his robes moves according to his moods  ;  if he’s calm  ,  so will they be.    if he’s angry  ,  they’ll play out a storm.

the skeletal arowana also tend to become agitated when he’s angry or upset  ,  moving around and unable to settle more than usual  ,  and often sticking close to wherever hx is in case there’s any danger.

[gkdhaka]

Chinese man cooks and eats his pet arowana after it dies, says it's 'most expensive fish' he's ever eaten

Chinese man cooks and eats his pet arowana after it dies, says it’s ‘most expensive fish’ he’s ever eaten

Feeling that it would be a waste, a man in Henan, China, decided to steam cook and eat his pet silver arowana, describing it as “the most expensive fish” he has eaten. In a viral video uploaded to Weibo on Friday, the man is seen cooking his once-pet fish, adding various ingredients to a pot including green onions and potatoes. Arowanas are a type of bony freshwater fish and can typically be…

[jiminsgalaxxi]

EUPHORIA

Pairing: Jungkook x Female Reader

☆ Recording Studio

☆ One shot || smut

---

Thank God for halter tops and maxi skirts! The summer sun felt like spotlight on your skin ready to burn a hole through you. You pushed through the door to Jungkook's studio and welcomed the cool blast of aircon on your skin. You happily sighed with the relief. "Ah, bliss."

In the studio, Jungkook and his producers were busy discussing about the new song they were planning to release. A familiar face pops up out of the huddle, "Hi, Y/N!" Adora cheerfully waves at you. "Heya!", you waved back. A couple more heads turned but only one face mattered to you most.

Flashing you a boyish smile with a twinkle in his eye, "One more run with our new mix and we should be done." He reassures you. "All good, babe. Take your time.", you smiled back.

After a few more minutes of bouncing back ideas, Jungkook gets into the glass booth and starts recording. His soft voice blending so well with the melody, your chest swells up with pride for having this wonderful human yours. 

There was always something with the way he sang that was so emotive that you just can't help but believe everything he sang to you. Looking at him through the glass window, his sang to the Sony C800GPAC microphone evocatively. A misty voice in a foggy morning dawn, cool and soothing.

He poured out everything that he has for any and all challenges, a trait you have always loved in him, so passionate in everything that he did; his dance, his singing, his music, his solo performances on stage and most especially in bed.

Jungkook in bed was fire understated.

Since the rest of the producers were busy analyzing the musical score, you took on the freedom to stare at him avidly. Noting how his eyes soften to match the mood; his lips softly rolling off the lyrics. You remembered how his lips felt possesively over yours just last night. Your eyes continued to travel down his neck, where you always like to kiss that pulsating vein. The groove of his chest discernable under his shirt where you love to feel his heart beat double time when you get close. Hands gently holding his studio headphones, big veins running the length of his arm disappearing under his shirt, the same hands that know exactly where to touch and make you quiver in ecstasy.

Just thinking about that was already making you hot, yet the a/c was blasting at max. How much longer until you can get him alone for yourself? As if on cue, his eyes found yours. As he sang out the last few notes of the melody, the soft look in his eyes has gone and his lips have curved into a slow smile.

It made you a little breathless. You know all to well what that look was.

Girls all around the world are crazy already about him and his band. Who wouldn't? They were handsome, talented, and dork level relatable.

Jungkook seemed to be cherished by the majority of the population of fans and even by his hyungs. He was funny, generous, athletic, and artistic in every way but most importantly, he belonged to you. Now, they are just doing some final touches to the mix just in time for their upcoming album release.

"That was awesome, Jungkook!" The foreign producer speaks through the mic packing the recording up. A grammy-winning producer has happily collaborated with BTS after weeks of exchanging emails and samples.

Jungkook gives two thumbs up paired with a big smile then started to tidy up inside the recording booth. "I'll run this through with Bang Si Hyuk in the morning and see if it works out with the final production.", the producer continues. "We've made about 15 samples and I'm pretty sure one of them will suit the story line" Namjoon interjects as if reassuring Jungkook. He knows how hard Jungkook has worked on this song, asking the younger man to record and re-record to change the mood of the song.

That was one of the things you loved about their brotherhood; they always pushed each other to their limits and bring out the best in them. They looked out for and genuinely cared for their group's well-being. Their admiration for each other was true and undeniable. All the boys were especially doting to Jungkook for being the maknae.

Jungkook was the amalgamation of all his hyungs.

You noticed the newly built three-meter fish tank on the far side of the room, a dimmed back light making the water glow as you looked around. You and Jungkook were just talking about adding either small tropical fishes or an arowana yesterday when you saw something golden reflecting in the low light elegantly glided by. So, he did get a gold arowana!

“How ya been, Y/N? You are looking especially captivating today.” you felt a weight shift on the leather couch you were sitting on as another figure sat beside you. “Hello, Yi Jeong.", giving him a tentative reply. "It's JPearl now," giving you a look through the side of his eyes. He had always been very friendly towards you albeit bordering on flirty sometimes but he was never physically forward. Yi Jeong aka JPearl appears to always find a reason to approach you. Looking him over, he was actually handsome. Tall and lean, straight black hair framing a small face with uncanningly black eyes, high nose bridge and thick pink lips.

Just imagine if Jimin and Seokjin had an offspring, it would be JPearl.

"I don't think I will ever get used to calling you JPearl. It sounds a little..." your eyes trailed the sound equipment on the table searching for the right word for it, "...offbeat", looking him in the eye. Arms folded, he leaned his head to you "Actually, you are the only one who calls me by my real name. I don't really mind what name you call me, sweet cakes, as long as you call me. Hearing you say my name is a beautiful song already." he finished with a wink. "M'kay" you laughed fakely.

What a flirt.

"Hey, what's this?" You find JPearl picking something up from your bare shoulder with his fingertips. It was when he gave it a little tug that you felt it. What seemed to be an invisible thread at first was actually a very long thin silver hair pinned under the skinny strap of your halter top. “Don’t!” your hand clamping down on his, his face puzzled. “It’s my lucky charm.”, you continued with a dry smile. “Oh. Sorry. I couldn’t help myself.” he apologized. “Is that an apology?” you teased.

He started to open his mouth to say something when a voice interrupted. “The only person he will apologize to is me.” Jungkook standing in front of you, his voice dropping low, his eyes almost challenging JPearl. “Hey, Jungkook. No harm intended.” JPearl raising both hands up. “Yeah, keep your hands to yourself and off my girl.” Jungkook almost confrontational. 

The other people in the room all of a sudden turned their heads around and fell silent upon hearing the low tones of threat in Jungkook’s voice. “Yah, Jungkook, all good there?” Namjoon asks. JPearl has stood up by this time but still Jungkook, who is even younger, towers over him. “I said, no harm done, Jungkook.” JPearl clarifies. Jungkook kept his eyes on him, near narrow slits. You decided to intervene. “Okay, puppies, drop it. As JPearl said, no harm done.” and in a louder voice, “Why don’t we go to the other room. I brought you something nice to snack on. You guys have been working hard today.” Glancing at Namjoon, “All good here”, putting a thumb up and a beaming smile.

Upon hearing there was food waiting, everybody started for the door. “Yeah, food! Thanks Y/N! You’re always the best!” Adora gives you a tight hug before half-running out of the room. She’s always been so sweet to you, although you have tried many times to make her tell you her real name. None of the boys know it, too. “Can you remember it now?” she asked peeping her head by the door frame. You give her a big smile while shaking your head. She did tell you that one night when you both were drunk but the memory escapes you. Sneaky.

You felt a hand brush up on your arm, Jungkook softly pulling you to him. “Hey, what was that all about?”, you asked. “I just don’t like that punk getting close to you.” eyes down, brows furrowed with his reply. “I know but see, I’m okay. He can be really friendly sometimes but you know I can handle him.” leaning your head to the side to look at his downcast face, still obviously upset, you laid a hand on his chest. He was cutely chewing his lower lip and that just made you want to kiss him so bad. “Friendly, my ass.” he huffed, “I know all too well what he is doing.”, “Is my Kookie jealous?” feeling a little giddy asking him that when you know all too well he was. 

“No, I’m just letting everyone know what is mine.” and with that his head swooped down to claim your lips. It was soft and almost peckish. Wrapping your arms around his waist, you felt him press you closer, your breast against him. He was always so possessive and you like that, especially when he gets like this. The course of his kiss changed to something more insistent, you can’t help but open up your lips to let his tongue in. His hands running up and down your back have lingered down to cup your derriere. “Why you gotta be so hot all the time? You drive me crazy.” His voice rough with need, “Fuck, you’re not even wearing a bra. What else is missing in your outfit today?”, he holds you closer to his hips, his growing desire obvious between his legs. He continued kissing you down your ivory neck while your breath in his ear made him all the more aroused. But you pushed him away all of a sudden, “Jungkook, wait! Here?” you scanned around, you can hear warning bells ringing in the corner of your mind. You and him in his recording studio with possible CCTVs monitoring what you were doing. “Don’t worry, no cameras in here. I made sure just in case of...” he looks down at your flushed face “...sexy times” As if reading your mind, his teeth flashed in his naughty smile. “Are you sure? But what about the others waiting for us? And your door, it’s fucking translucent.” you were skeptical. You looked to the door where you can see shadows of passersby.  “They can wait. It’s frosted and also auto-lock. No one else knows the passcode. Not even Jimin. Trust me.” he assured. “Now where were we, baby girl?” the want in his voice unmistakable.

“If that’s the case”, you languidly snake your hands over his nape, “Right here.” you whispered, pulling him down for another kiss. You feel him harden between the crevice of your hips. The promiscuity in his studio with the possibility of being caught stirred a different kind of excitement in you.

You turned around to settled your bottom against his erection while moving your hair aside exposing your bare back to him. Holding your hips to his, he slowly starts to gyrate against you. "Your ass feels so good" he whispers in between kisses against your bare shoulder. Hands spanning your slim waist and sliding up to your breasts. You drop your head back savoring the feeling spreading all over your body. "I love the way you smell, baby girl" his voice gruff on your neck. He turned you around and opens his mouth over yours. His hands cupped your ass, massaging them to his arousal. Standing on tiptoes and pressing your breasts to him, you felt his hands inch down to your thighs and in one swift motion lifted you up, legs wrapped around his waist. You lustily gasped in his mouth with surprise but took his lips back, delving your tongue inside to taste more of him. 

Your body always wanting more of him. 

He sets you down on his table, his recording equipment strewn beside you, his kiss undisturbed. Putting your legs on either side of the arm rest of his swivel chair, he ran his hands over your legs hiking your skirt up, he motioned to sit on his chair when you stopped him, “I wanna show you something”, pushing your hair away, you pulled the black skinny string at your nape. Jungkook’s eye followed the fabric of your halter top slowly fall away, exposing your creamy breasts. “Do you like it?” biting on your lip.

 “I love it.”

You found his eyes transfixed on your nipple ring. His hands slowly followed the trail of your neck down to cup your breast, his touch almost scorching. His head lowered to relish on your pierced nipple, wet tongue flicking on your already sensitive nub sending bolts of hot flushes to the pit of your stomach. As his other hand kneaded your other breast, he continued to play with your nipple ring. You thought you were going to go mad with his teasing, you grabbed a fistful of his hair as you arched your back to him. Closing your eyes and throwing your head back, you bit on your lower lip to contain the pleasure running all over your body. A husky moan escaped from your throat as your legs drew him closer. 

“Jungkook”, your voice barely a whisper as he leaves a trail of hot kisses from your breast to your sensitive belly button. You hear the rustle of your skirt as he lifted it up over you thighs. “I can see how hot you are for me, baby girl. God, you are so wet”  your wetness soaking through the crotch of your bodysuit, he started to palm your sex over the fabric, the friction of the buttons on your clit escalating your lust. “Only for you.” You countered in a raspy voice, you heart pounding in your ears. “Touch me, I want to feel your fingers inside me.” He released the three buttons holding your bodysuit to reveal the soft folds of your throbbing womanhood. 

“Fuck, you’re not even wearing panties” you brushed your tongue over your lips as you give him an impish smile. “Touch me,” you said to him again. His eyes darkened to kiss you, his hand brushing the inside of your thigh finding its way to touch you between your legs. After licking his fingers, he deftly slid a digit in to you. In and out of your damp slit, thumbing your sensitive bud. “Like this?” his warm breath in your ear as you throw your head back. Another fingers joined to fondle you, you can only moan in pleasure to answer him. 

He gives you a torrid kiss before disappearing under your skirt that has bunched up on your waist and hips. The moment his warm tongue touched your core, you felt the coil in your stomach tighten ten-fold. His hands cupping the sides of your hips as he continues to ravage you. "You taste so good, baby girl" the humming vibration of his voice against your pussy shot a burn to your stomach. You can feel the building white heat spreading across you, consuming rationality. Your thighs tighten and you feel yourself start to quiver as you feel your climax coming. "Jungkook, I- I'm cumming" you grab his hair as ecstasy wash over you. "No, we cum together." His voice almost violently rough against your thigh. He comes up to take his hardened dick out of his pants. You help him out of his shirt and run your hands over his toned torso. You tug him close to kiss his chest and suck on his nipple, your hands gliding to touch what you can reach of his bottom.

He tilts you up by the chin, "Taste yourself" he murmurs before closing his mouth over yours. Your hands reached out to fondle his dick and rubbed its wet tip against your clit, sending a shockwave of rapture through your body. You moaned in his mouth with erotic pleasure. "You like that, huh?" his hands kneading your breasts.

"Take me to utopia."

That was all he needed to shove his blunt length into you, spreading you from the inside. He growled in your kiss as he felt your heat engulfing him. Moaning his name, your fingers dug onto his back as he starts to slowly pace his thrusts. He pulled his hips back almost taking himself out and thrusting back into you again."Fuck! You feel so good, baby girl” burrowing his head on the crook of your neck. “I like that, don’t stop” you bit onto his shoulder. The feel of your breast rubbing against his chest magnified your inflamed desire a hundred fold. “You’re so tight and wet. You are driving me insane” his breath panting against your skin. 

“You’re so thick, Jungkook. Take me higher.“ you leaned on your elbows exposing your half naked body to him, arching your back. He grabbed you by your hips and sped up his pace.

You feel white heat spreading across your belly and onto the rest of your body. “Jungkook!” His thumb rubbing on your throbbing clit as his full length filled your walls. "Right here, baby? Is this your sweet spot?". His increased thrust touching your magic spot made you stifle the moans wanting to escape from your mouth. The tightened coil in your tummy becoming too taut is ready to come undone.

Your head turns to the aquarium by the wall and you can see the reflection of your lasciviousness. This and the beady sweat forming on Jungkook's forehead turned you on even more. His low growl each time he pumps into you makes your pussy wetter.

Finally, you feel the pressure ready to burst within you and you find yourself uncontrollably yielding to it. Head upturned and back arching, your walls clenched tighter around his member. You feel yourself clinging onto him as your body surrenders to ecstasy.

You feel Jungkook grip your thighs tighter as he pushes in for a final thrust to his summit. Your bodies riding the wave of your euphoria.

His head drops to the crook of your neck, all sweaty and heart throbbing at high-octane speed. "That felt so good, baby girl."

"You are the cause of my euphoria" you traced his jaw with your finger. He smiles into your skin.

"Can you wear this more often." His eyes playful. "Jungkook." You both chuckle at the same time. You sucked in a breath as he withdraws out of you.

Retying the black string on your nape, you looked up at him to ask, "Can we get something to eat now?" He laughs as he swings you down from your perch and escorts you out of the room.

His golden arowana swimming in his tank, unbothered.

~fin.

[electric-sympathy]

My Dad’s silver arowana somehow snaked out of the one minuscule hole in the fishtank hood and died.... It literally took 2 hours to find his body because he somehow managed to squirm until he was 4 feet away behind a table between the radiator and wall, elevated from the floor

[jojotier]

A Tale Of Two Jotaros

(The second chapter of FM Part 1: Wealth of Stability! Jotaro and Kakyoin travel to the scenic Milford Sound, New Zealand to investigate a slew of unnatural earthquakes, only to find a normal girl who acts nearly exactly like Jotaro, down to field of study and tendency to barge in fists first. Enjoy!)

The first thing to note was that his head was pounding, worse than the one time he attempted underage drinking and worse than all those times when he was sent flying into whatever surface some villain was tossing him at that day. Jotaro could probably count on the fingers of his right hand how many random bastards were able to get the drop on him, but those times were still memorable enough in how much of a rage headache he’d been left with after. This was worse than those times. The fact that he was just punched in the jaw also wasn’t helping matters.

Right. Second thing to note: he was just punched in the jaw.

The bitch who did it had guts, especially since she was half a foot shorter than him and with far less muscle, and sure as hell must have had an ego and way too much luck, if the small stack of bodies behind her was any indication. She glared at him, shook her hand, and bit out, “Dammit all- you’re a tough sonuvabitch, I’ll give you that, but if you think you or your cronies here are going to get anything, then you’ve got yourself a couple feathers short of a full dodo.”

So she had guts and a pretty damn bad case of mistaken identity, because he didn’t know a single one of the goons unconscious there. Suddenly, Jotaro was thankful that he hadn’t just sent Star out to pummel this woman into the ground, because not only was that too much energy he wasn’t willing to spend, but now he could rest easy with the knowledge that he hadn’t just gone and beaten some random girl to a pulp for no legitimate reason.

He said levelly, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” because he did, in fact, have no idea what she was talking about. He looked over everything to try and piece it together, just barely catching the movement of another punch headed his way.

He just needed a few damn seconds to see what he was dealing with, so with a noncommitted mutter, he had Star stop time for a total of five seconds. It was coming easier to him, the more he practiced with it, but that didn’t mean that Jotaro liked using it all that much. At most, it was a fail safe, a backup plan to make sure that he or Kakyoin didn’t get skewered in some precarious situation. He preferred using his hands in real time- not only because it made everything more satisfying to see his opponents react in real time, but also because when he was pissed to all hell it felt like he was cheating himself out of some benefit to having the world see. He looked damn cool when he fought, and looking back on that instead of the rage bubbling under his skin helped.

The scene had the gorgeous backdrop of pretty much anywhere in this far too expensive tourist trap of a marine getaway- along the beach there were the waves, the nose of a dolphin breaking the water, with a cloudless sky and high cliffs rising towards it. There were three goons passed out along the beach, and he sidestepped the frozen fist of this girl to crouch near them. Their pockets were filled with coins, and their coats were lined with a certain kind of tropical fish, mostly dead. Poor things- if he’d found some goons trying to suffocate these like this, he’d be pissed too.

The girl was still there, and he took the last second to see if she fit the description of the Stand User they were after. The Foundation didn’t have much info on her, which was annoying and troublesome, but they did know that it was a she, and she had long hair. Considering the braid that flipped down to her ankles, he’d say she fit that much, so it’d pay to be careful.

Three seconds were up and the world began again. The young woman finished punching thin air and then started, eyes (or maybe it was just the one eye- the other was covered by one ridiculously long strand of hair that’d escaped her completely impractically lengthy braid) widening as she whipped around to face him, fists balling up tight. Her face was stoic as she regarded him, eyebrows furrowing, and Jotaro almost wanted to laugh- who did she think she was, trying to look intimidating when she was barely 150 centimeters tall?

“I don’t know how you got over there,” She said, and even if she might have been pretending, but it seemed as if she didn’t even notice Star floating behind him, “but you’re going to give some answers, or I’ll be forced to kick your ass.”

“Good grief.” He muttered in response, watching her warily. Even if she wasn’t the stand user, he knew she could at least throw a half decent punch, and the last thing he wanted to do was blow some situation out of proportion just because he got irritated. That wasn’t why they’d come here. “I don’t have answers for these three, because I don’t know anything about them. Besides, what they’re doing,” He bent down, pulling aside the fabric and showing the bags of lethargically swimming fish, “is inhumane as all hell to these fish and I don’t care for that shit.”

The girl had the presence of mind to look slightly bewildered (or slightly irritated- either way, there was the telltale twitch of an eyebrow) as she said, “What- no, these goons were making off with the gold they have on exhibition. What the hell is this about fish?”

“These are arowanas- big money for anyone willing to smuggle to fish enthusiasts and the stuperstitious.” He felt that he may as well explain, considering how lost and decidedly not-violent this one had apparently gotten. Still, it didn’t make sense- why go and have an entire heist in the middle of a completely different smuggling operation? Either these three were the stupidest criminals Jotaro had ever had the displeasure to lay eyes on or there was something fishier going on than just the arowanas sluggishly floating in their containers. Damn. And here he had thought that maybe he’d have a moment to actually pretend that he was enjoying his time at Milford Sound.

There were footsteps, and before he could turn he heard the sound of that girl shifting, fists probably raising and Kakyoin echoing his own first thoughts while first observing this scene. “What on Earth has happened here?”

Jotaro turned, inclining his head in acknowledgement as the girl straightened up, flipping her braid over her shoulder and giving a low huff. “Good grief… it’s a chore to have to explain this all any more than I have to. I’ll let him explain things, since I’m about done here.” She looked Kakyoin in the eye and Kakyoin blinked, eyebrows raising a bit at the venomous glare. She started walking away, the silver chains on her small black jacket trailing behind her along with the black cord of her hair.

Kakyoin approached Jotaro, looking between him and the retreating back of the girl that caused a sudden spike of irritation to burn low in his stomach and then calling out to her with a hint of bemusement. “Ah, wait a moment miss!” She turned back to face him, expression impassive. He smiled, standing up straighter and moving forward until he was taking her hands gently within his own, leaning down while still being ever the gentleman. “My name is Noriaki Kakyoin. Now, if you would please…” Even as Kakyoin very sweetly asked her to stay, putting on the charm that usually left girls weak in the knees, her face didn’t change from that passive indifference. That stoic expression was pissing Jotaro the hell off.

Then, she had the fucking gall to swat Kakyoin’s hands away, a scowl coming onto her face as she said rudely, “Don’t touch me, you son of a bitch. I can’t stand men that get handsy. If you need me there, then fine- but I don’t want to see any errant hand come anywhere near me, or I’ll beat the shit out of you.” She brushed past him and came to lean against the nearby metal fence that separated the beach from the pavement, leaving Kakyoin bemused but bewildered.

Who in the fuck gave this bitch the right to speak to people any way she wanted? It was annoying. He hated people that were so full of themselves.

Kakyoin came over and murmured to Jotaro, “Funny. It’s almost like we crossed into some kind of strange alternate plane.” Jotaro didn’t like that teasing tone in his voice, no matter how quiet he was being.

“And how the hell do you figure that?” Jotaro had to ask, because there was some kind of cosmic joke here that he was missing, and if there was one thing that set his blood to boil faster than random gutsy bitches, it was missing something that everyone else in the universe apparently found to be fucking hysterical.

“You didn’t realize it? She acts a lot like you do, or used to do, particularly with the opposite sex. Kind of looks like you, too. With the chains, the unreasonable amount of belts, black overcoat…”

“I’m only wearing two belts.” He muttered, irritated now because no, he hadn’t noticed any similarities between this random civilian and himself. He had other things to think about, like whatever the hell these men were doing.

“That’s at least one belt too many, and you’re not denying that she does.”

“If you want to see shit that isn’t there, who the hell am I to stop you? Besides, I don’t act like a stuck up bitch to people.”

“When we met you called your mother a bitch.”

“We don’t speak of those times.”

“What times? You still call girls bitches. You just indirectly called this one a bitch.”

“Not to their faces, anymore. And not all of them are bitches. This one, though...”

Kakyoin snorted, shaking his head as he whispered. “Let’s call it a work in progress.”

“Hey,” The girl rudely spoke up, staring at the both of them, “are you two having a lover’s quarrel or what? If you wanted me here, get on with it- I don’t have all day, you know.”

He crouched near the men and the fish, having a look for himself what Jotaro already observed.. “Arowanas, hm? Seems to be a terribly inconvenient place to be smuggling them. Especially with… the gold inside as well.” Jotaro watched as Hierophant Green was slowly unwinding itself and wrapping its tentacles securely around the criminals on the ground. All male, all with hair that ranged from short to reasonably long. Not the stand user they were looking for, it seemed.

He glanced over again at the girl, but she kept staring passively. She didn’t make any indication that she saw Hierophant, but she very well could have. She was looking directly at Jotaro now, and Jotaro met her gaze, glaring back at her with as much force as she glared at him. They might have actually stayed that way for a while if Kakyoin hadn’t stepped in and said, “So, will someone explain or do I have to piece it together myself?”

“Jesus, can’t you take any initiative?” She said, looking back at Jotaro before looking to Kakyoin. “Since your partner here is apparently inept, I’ll take on the explanation; alright, Nori?” Nori? What in the hell had her already calling him a nickname? Jotaro hadn’t even started calling him anything like that, and at the very least he knew Kakyoin longer than a few minutes.

Kakyoin didn’t seem to notice his partner’s rising annoyance and instead nodded, saying politely, “Yes, I would very much like that.” Equally politely, he didn’t comment on the nickname use, probably figuring it a custom or some shit.

“Here’s the basics- I saw these three sneaking out the museum, where there’s an exhibition on pirates around the region and throughout history going on. People were freaking out, and they were running through the chaos, so it wasn’t hard to figure out that they were being suspicious for a reason. Turns out, they stole a good portion of the Dutch gold there and tried to make off with it, along with these arowanas that they’ve smuggled into the country to sell. After all, with their popularity among tropical fish enthusiasts and their unique scales, they’d make a pretty penny.” If she knew damn well where fish played into this, then why had she been so confused earlier? “I don’t understand why they would try a heist in the middle of smuggling, though- seems stupid as hell. Whatever the case, they’re out of commission. I made sure of that.”

Which brought up the question of, how the hell did she take down three full grown men by herself? She couldn’t have been much older than Jotaro or Kakyoin, and she was at least half a foot shorter, so how the hell did she manage to knock them all out, especially with a punch that wasn’t especially noteworthy or powerful?

“Then I mistook your friend there and punched him.” She said, looking at Jotaro with a small smirk on her face. Jotaro felt the muscles in his fingers twitch at that as Kakyoin’s eyebrows shot up and he turned to look at Jotaro, a little look of surprise in his face.

“Took me by surprise. I didn’t think a little thing like you would even try it.” Jotaro said levelly as the girl glared at him.

“I didn’t think that a gorilla like you could find work anywhere outside a crime syndicate, so I guess we both learned something today.” She said back, and Jotaro watched Kakyoin bite his lip, shoulders shaking a bit.

His head throbbed. He had a feeling this was going to be a long day.

After the Speedwagon Foundation picked up the men and Jotaro had triple checked that those arowanas were going to be given good enough care, he, Kakyoin, and the girl settled into the only little cafe in this resort town to look things over since it became obvious that this bitch knew some of the shit that might have been going on.

Jotaro had long since learned that her name was Shila, that she was nineteen years old and doing an internship here because she wanted to become a marine biologist, but he could care less. Why the hell should he have cared about the life of some inconsequential girl, even if there were details that were starting to look eerily similar to the life of his own? The world was full of bizarre bullshit, and if it wanted to throw a female doppelganger with his exact seventeen year old pre-Egypt personality it could do so without any fear of retribution. It was honestly better not to even acknowledge it, because then it just made things even more uncomfortable, and when that happened, the world generally took that as its cue to fuck everything over all the more.

Kakyoin, though, was just having the dandiest fucking time while still putting on that polite face he generally did around new people he wasn’t quite used to letting loose around. He could tell in the little crinkles at the corners of Kakyoin’s mouth and eyes, the humored twitch of fingers and the appearance of a few sly remarks that only Jotaro would understand because he’d been there and in the end, he was the one being made fun of. He was hating this situation more and more.

“So why exactly are you all here, and apparently getting involved like this? Are you some kind of cops? You don’t look American…” Shila was saying from across the booth. She’d taken up an entire side by herself, spreading herself out with no regard to anyone else and forcing Kakyoin and Jotaro to squeeze together on the other side. They were not small men. It was just another spark of irritation added to the fire.

“I suppose you could say that we are agents of sorts.” Kakyoin said, taking a sip of his tea. “I’m afraid we can’t say much more, but we can say this- we’re looking for someone of very… specific abilities, under the guise of investigating the recent slew of earthquakes.”

That was right. Recently, the normally sunny and lovely Milford Sound had become stormy, and numerous earthquakes were threatening the delicate ecosystem there. Most so far had affected more inland areas, but they were already disrupting the delicate black coral reefs deep under the water, and the many lightning strikes were starting to destroy property. There was probably more to that, but honestly, Jotaro had mostly skimmed over the report and read the parts where the marine life were being threatened and what information they had on their user.

“What- do you think they’re linked somehow or somethin’?” She asked nonchalantly taking a swig of some overly obnoxious looking soda brand he’d never seen before. Kakyoin’s eyes narrowed, but with the wave of a hand she dismissed herself, saying, “Jesus, I’m joking. You’ve seen the action flicks like that- the agents say they’re doing one thing while doing another, but secretly they’re all linked together. I could help, though.”

“Is that so?” Kakyoin asked, putting on a polite face.

“Well, I don’t know how I can help you find anyone with “specific abilities” if I don’t know those abilities are,” She said, finishing off her soda and setting the bottle down, leaning forward a bit. “but I can tell you this- the tectonic activity around here just isn’t normal. I’ve been studying the ocean floor maps for weeks, and the fault line has always been more inland. Now, it’s almost as if all the earthquakes have been moving slowly closer towards the reef. I don’t know what to make of that- but if something happens there, especially with the observatory….”

“Right, Milford Sound’s Underwater Observatory… if an earthquake hits there, then anyone inside will be stuck ten meters in the ocean.” Jotaro nodded along with that, because should that place be destroyed, that would be dozens of lives at risk and an entire ecosystem utterly destroyed.

“Well I don’t see them being transported to the lost city of Atlantis.” Shila quiped.

“How long have the quakes been going on for?” Jotaro finally spoke, looking to Shila. She may have been unbearable, but in the end, she might be useful, for at least a moment. Then he and Noriaki could go back to more important things, other than entertaining her and her shitty attitude.

“About two weeks- it started off small and inland, every few days, but now it’s gotten to be every other day. They’re getting worse.” Shila told them, watching them with that same stoic expression.

“Then we have a time limit, of sorts.” Kakyoin mused, looking out the window and over the streets. No earthquake had hit the town yet, so it seemed as if they would be due for one sometime soon. Which meant that eventually, they would be able to corner the stand user somewhere in the town- after all, they’d have to be staying nearby, and have an exceptionally good sense of where everything in the town was, in addition to the natural landscape.

A tour guide, of sorts. Or someone living at the resort for an internship to study that very same landscape.

To be honest, Jotaro had his suspicions from the moment this woman talked so effortlessly about the arowanas to Kakyoin, as if she’d known about them being part of the plan all along. No, earlier than that- when she didn’t even bat an eyelash at Kakyoin’s charming display like anyone else would. Still, he needed something more concrete- more evidence to even affirm to himself that this Shila character was who they were after. He guessed the best thing would be to see if she could see their stands, but it’d be easy to pretend they weren’t there.

“If anything, you should have your agency evacuate the place.” Shila said, leaning back. “It’ll be a damn pain to move all those papers out, but it’s a small price to pay. Still- what can you tell me about the person with a specific ability?”

Kakyoin and Jotaro looked to each other. If Jotaro’s hunch was wrong and this girl wasn’t a stand user like them, then any explanation would essentially be worthless. Besides, even if she were a stand user, she would probably be who they were going after in the first place. Jotaro summoned Star Platinum in that moment and Kakyoin nodded, leaning back. “There isn’t anything that we can say, I’m afraid- it’s all classified. Though, we must thank you for your help-”

“You need me.” She said without pause, looking Noriaki dead in the eye and moving her bang out of the way to gaze at him fully. “No one else will know the landscape quite as well as me, unless you count all those old geezers down below. And you wouldn’t want too many people to know about it, I’m guessing. You need someone to help you out, so that you can deal with the earthquakes. I have the pattern on these on lock.”

Even as Star moved directly in Shila’s line of sight, she didn’t bat an eye. That wasn’t going to be enough, and it was already damn suspicious that she was insisting on coming in the first place. There was only one more thing to do, and Jotaro figured that it wouldn’t hurt to give this bitch a little taste of her own medicine. With a loud “ORA-” Star’s fist was pulled back and then sent flying straight into her jaw. Before it hit though, Jotaro muttered, “Star Platinum, the World.” and everything around him froze.

Like this, it was easier to gauge a reaction. Seeing if there was any kind of change in expression the exact millisecond before Star’s fist landed would let Jotaro examine more carefully whether or not she could see the Stand in danger of punching her. He looked with both his own eyes, and then with Star’s, but the answer was the same- Shila’s face was absolutely stone cold stoic, the same expression as before, with no change. He stared for one second of frozen time, then three, then ten, but nothing. She didn’t seem to even realize that there was a gust of wind or a presence of something powerful about to hit her dead on. Star moved out of the way.

Time began to move. Shila made no move other than to pick up her empty soda bottle and try to throw it into the trash from her seat. When it didn’t land inside the can, she let out a huff and went to go pick it up after getting a dirty look from the woman at the counter. While she was gone, Kakyoin elbowed him hard in the ribs.

“Jesus Jotaro, what in the hell were you thinking?!” He hissed, “If you’d only lingered a moment-!”

“You know that Star’s precise.” Jotaro said irritably. “I was never going to actually hit her.” But he did definitely consider doing so wholeheartedly there for a second, if only because she was getting under his skin in some weird way that made him feel vaguely slimy.

“Even so, it’s obvious she can’t see them. Otherwise she would’ve seen Hierophant Green earlier.” That was true, sure, but Jotaro just needed to be sure. Even then, though… this girl could be stoic and ornery to the extreme in the face of practically anything, so what was one near punch to the jaw? It may have still been an act. It wasn’t as if they knew her in any way.

But considering how ruffled Kakyoin got, maybe he wouldn’t voice that just yet.

Jotaro needed a smoke after all that, and he was able to sneak away for a break without Kakyoin even sparing him one of those vague eye rolls he gave whenever he went for a cigarette. He wasn’t exactly sure what emotion was meant to be conveyed with it- disgust? Annoyance? Amusement? Some fond sentimental bullshit? He wasn’t too good with emotions- but he did know that it always made him spoke at least one more cigarette than planned, just to spite the asshole a little.

There was a small railing to the balcony outside the little cafe, boasting a view that no doubt got far too many photographers itching to take several keepsakes of the little town as it stretched below, surrounded on either side by stone and greenery and pointing out towards the far more interesting sea beyond. Jotaro lit up his cigarette, bringing it to his lips and breathing in.

The nicotine puffed through his system and untensed his shoulders, mingling through the slightly salty air brought in from the coast. It was quiet out there, and he could safely let his thoughts drift from topic to topic as he tried to have some reprieve from the last few days cooped up on a plane, then in a hotel room, then within the confines of twenty thick stacks of folders of information on seismic activity and sea life and the precious few leads the Foundation had found, which still ended up taking up the majority of the folders despite all the shitty purple prose essentially equating to the higher ups shrugging their shoulders and saying “fuck if we know”.

That was one thing that made this entire thing significantly worse than Egypt- sure, they all had the enemy snapping at their ankles every waking moment, but at least then it didn’t take hours of strain and luck hoping for some damn excitement with a shit ton of paperwork on top of it. Jotaro was going to go out of his mind with cabin fever, which was a shame- he actually had wanted to see the surf at least once while they were there.

He had begun vaguely recalling the list of sea creatures that would be visible from the underwater observatory ( Antipatharia , black coral, a species normally found in the deep ocean but due to deep water emergence would be able to grow just beneath the freshwater layer since sunlight can’t reach it, home to Conger oceanicus , Conga eel, deep sea starfish such as the species-) when his concentration was broken by the sound of heavy booted footsteps walking out on the balcony with him. Not that the steps themselves were all that heavy- Jotaro knew for a fact a girl Shila’s size couldn’t make the sound of their feet any louder, no matter how big the shoes they used to play dress up or how loud they stomped.

Shila relaxed against the railing, looking out towards the town and sea. Jotaro huffed out a puff of smoke, and then immediately sucked in another, flicking ash to the pavement. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Shila pull out a pack of cigarettes of her own; a pack of the exact same brand as his, no less. She lit up a cigarette and took a deep drag before huffing the smoke out.

Jotaro asked her irritably, “What the hell do you want.”

“What, I can’t have a smoke?” Shila said in that infuriatingly deadpan way of hers, not even bothering to look his direction. “It was getting too stuffy in there with your partner. He may act cute and polite, but he’s kind of fuckin’ weird, if you ask me.”

“I didn’t ask you.” Jotaro told her flatly. What the hell would she know? Kakyoin didn’t just turn around and start being his usual kind of weird asshole self unless he was comfortable around people, and Jotaro knew for a fact that he couldn’t have been feeling comfortable with this bitch just yet. Even then though, hearing her call his friend weird made Jotaro bristle because he was the only one allowed to mess with Kakyoin about his shit (even if it was true), not some random floozy who couldn’t even speak in any way without sounding arrogant.

Shila took another drag, let it out, and looked to Jotaro from the corner of her eye. Jotaro kept staring stubbornly ahead- he wasn’t about to blink first. “Then again, I guess weirdos are attracted to each other. Considering that fancy shit you pulled earlier with those assholes on the beach, I’m guessing you’re even weirder than Cherry Boy inside there.” She jerked a thumb back and Jotaro’s fingers twitched around his cigarette. He stayed quiet.

A moment passed where the air was tense, with neither of them making any movements to go inside. Jotaro didn’t speak; he didn’t need to answer to Shila, or to the accusation and interrogation rolled into the margins of her statement. Just as he let another slow puff out, Shila clicked her tongue, flipping her long braid over her shoulder. “Good grief… sometimes I wonder if you’re even capable of human speech. Whatever the case, you should probably know that I ended up prying a description of your special person and know something of what you’re talking about.”

Finally, something actually worth his time. He flicked the ash from his cigarette and turned partially to her, looking to get her to go on. Apparently slow to catch onto cues not blasted liberally into her fucking eardrums, Shila took a moment before she went on. “I was running some errands for the researchers down below in an outpost in the nearby national park that deals with weather shit- sometime around a week after the earthquakes started- when I saw a pretty short girl with long white hair. She was all covered up, head to toe, which was weird since it’s the middle of a shitty summer, and I didn’t catch a glimpse of her face. Couple minutes later, an earthquake started, and she disappeared into the woods.”

His cigarette burned a little more, nearly burning his fingers with the heat. It couldn’t have been that easy- just a simple, straight forward lead pointing them in the direction of their stand user, all wrapped up in a shitty Hot Topic brand bow? Rarely was anything in Jotaro’s life ever easy and straightforward, particularly when stands and the people using them were involved. Even then, though, Star Platinum had proved it- Shila wasn’t a stand user. She didn’t even see the punch coming.

All Jotaro could do was huff out another puff of smoke and take one last drag of his own. “Seems awfully convenient.”

“Yeah, well, Nori says not to look a gift horse in the mouth, and the sooner freaks like you are out of my hair, the better. We’ll be moving out soon enough.” Shila said, letting the butt of her cigarette fall to the ground. Except the butt landed directly on Jotaro’s shoe, and she still had the gall to stomp down on his foot and grind the thing in, before glaring up at him, as if daring him to do something.

Jotaro’s eyes narrowed as he gripped onto the front of Shila’s shirt, lifting her up on her toes. “And what the hell was that about? These shoes were expensive as all hell.”

“What was all what about?” Shila mocked, staring him directly in the eye without so much as moving a muscle to stop him. As if she was in control of this entire situation. “Though, I wouldn’t do anything too rash if I were you- weird as he is, your partner seems to be such a gentleman, and he won’t be happy knowing that you tried to fight a lady. A lady who’s acting as your guide to the national park over the cliff, no less. What would Nori say about this?”

Jotaro could feel his blood boiling in his head, but the bitch was right. Kakyoin had been with him over the past few years and encouraging him to work on his temper, and the thought of disappointing Kakyoin after he’d been trusted with so much of his fate stung worse than the hit to his pride. Reluctantly, he let Shila go, and she still didn’t show any emotion as she turned on her heel and walked back through the door, moving to stand near where Kakyoin had taken up residence near the front door, chatting with a presumably local, probably to get in as much culture as he could.

Jotaro’s head throbbed. He wondered what would get rid of his headache first- smoking enough cigarettes to let the nicotine do its job or the lung cancer he was sure to get trying.

“They call this ‘The Chasm’.” Shila said, looking up at the gaping structure rising to their left. It was a large rock formation, long ago carved out by glaciers long gone, and the sound of two waterfalls rushing downwards marked it. Jotaro wasn’t one for staring at scenery for too long- it was just a bunch of rocks with some water running like a couple giant faucets, big deal- but Kakyoin seemed particularly impressed by it all, so he didn’t say anything. He wasn’t about to rail against something his friend liked so much unprompted. Said friend had taken to walking between Jotaro and Shila, closer to the little bitch than to him, much to Jotaro’s annoyance.

“I think I read something about this,” Kakyoin said, shielding his eyes against the sun. “in the guidebooks. This entire national park was carved out from glaciers, thousands of years ago, and now that it’s receded it’s left these formations which are still being slowly eroded even to this day. Nature has been slowly chipping away at it for eons, and now it’s left us with this… It’s truly a marvel.”

Shila raised an eyebrow and said, “They’re just rocks, but alright- I didn’t take you for the flowery type, Nori.”

Well she didn’t know anything about “Nori” anyway, Jotaro thought irritably to himself, so she could fuck off.

Kakyoin didn’t answer that and they pressed on in silence for a bit. Then, Shila spoke up again, staring straight ahead where the bridge gave way to the solid ground of the cliff they were going to be travelling on. “The quakes haven’t reached past here yet, so we have a good chance of getting back. If not, there’s stations nearby for rock climbing that we can use to get back across.” The drop below was steep, giving way to rushing water that was who knew how many meters deep. If anything hit right then, it’d be a surefire way for the enemy stand user to have them injured. Even if he didn’t know if the user was aware of them or not (which was pretty unlikely, given that the last one, that Page, caught on quickly enough) there was still something suspicious about the fact that nothing had gotten them while Shila was on the bridge.

They all stepped safely onto the other side and there was a crack in forest dead ahead of them.

In the blink of an eye, Star and Hierophant Green were out- but their guide didn’t seem to realize them, only looking in alarm at the trees. Or, perhaps, the vague approximation of alarm. Still stoic as ever. Still not even giving any indication of emotion. Really, he didn’t know what Kakyoin had seen in her that was so similar to Jotaro- at least he had the presence of mind to show that he was actually feeling something, instead of expending any unnecessary energy in trying to hide it in any way. Besides, it was easy enough to read, if someone actually knew him.

There was a flash of something in the trees, and Shila’s eye (the visible one- that bang had fallen in front of the other again) widened as she barked out, “Get down!” There was the sound of something quick flying through the air, and effortlessly Star had taken hold of the little projectile. It wasn’t anything special- an arrow, a blunt on at that- but it showed, along with the rustling in the trees, that there was definitely something there.

He quickly took hold of the arrow and turned to where Shila and Kakyoin were- except they weren’t standing. Somewhere in the middle of that, Shila had had the bright idea to tackle Kakyoin to the ground to make sure he didn’t get hit. It was another piece of evidence that she couldn’t see the stands- if she could, would she have really been that worried? And why the hell was she worried, if she had been making fun of Kakyoin in the first place?

He started towards the forest, running full speed ahead. He was sure that they could catch up. Or at least, Kakyoin could catch up- if he left the woman on the ground there, that would just be all the better, not only for her safety if she was a civilian, but for Jotaro’s own peace of mind.

Shila wasn’t expecting the arrow to come as suddenly as it did, but it did- and that meant that whoever was right in front of them, they had some damn good aim. She didn’t know if it was the white haired girl or someone else, but that didn’t matter right then- right then, she was trying to make sure that this Noriaki guy was okay. For as little as she knew about him, she could tell this much- the guy was good. Almost to a sickening degree.

Having that stand of his out could be a problem, though.

Now, Shila liked to think of herself as a pretty good actress- it was in her entire job description, after all!- but she also knew when to drop the act and make sure things were kosher. It would be a shame if someone as legitimately good as Nori there were to get hurt.

Noriaki held his side, over where Shila’s hand was pressing down, blood slipping through both of their fingers. “What the hell…?! I thought there was only one--”

“There were two arrows!” Shila said, raising herself onto her knees, straddling him. She was half disappointed that that suspicious partner of his wasn’t there to see- she might not have known much about the freak, but she did know a creep when she saw it. She lifted her hand away from his side to have a look, and the cut wasn’t too deep. Which was a relief. Last thing she needed was someone getting needlessly injured here. Cursing, she reached into her pocket, pulling out a small bottle of cherry water. She remembered dully that he liked cherries, and Shila knew that this wasn’t any ordinary water she was giving him. “Drink some of this- I’ll bandage you up real quick.”

“As kind as that is, I don’t really think now is the time for proper hydration-” Shila gave him a look, and he stared right back at her. The both of them looked at each other for a moment before Noriaki sighed, opening up the bottle and taking a sip. Shila went back to tearing part of her coat apart (which was a damn shame- this thing was expensive ) and started sopping up the blood. After a moment, Noriaki held his head, grimacing. “Shila… what was in that?”

“Medicine. Just wait a second- the headache dies down after a bit.” Shila watched as the blood pouring from the wound coagulated, then stopped. After she wiped the last of it away, the nick to Noriaki’s side was gone completely. Just a perk to having friends in high places, or so she’d like to think. Noriaki made a small sound low in his throat as he sat up, eyebrows raising.

“So it was. I wasn’t expecting that…” Noriaki said, looking to Shila for a long moment. Shila stared back, using the moment to hide the little trinket underneath the fabric she was using and discreetly slip it into Noriaki’s pocket. It wasn’t anything particularly big- just a small red marble, nothing more.

Abruptly, Shila got to her feet, pointing to Noriaki sternly. “Stay here for a second. It’s dangerous for you to get up right now… I’ll scout out the area ahead.” Sure, Nori had a good luck charm from her, but Shila still had other things to take care of right then. Just so that she could rest easy the rest of the time she had to spend with pretty boy and his freaky goth guard dog. Noriaki tried to stand, grimaced again, and had to sit right back down, and Shila looked ahead towards the direction where his partner had taken off in.

“Fine… Just don’t go too far. I’ll join with you momentarily.” Noriaki said, and Shila nodded, moving towards the trees. She was going to make sure that this guy was at least unscathed after everything.

After all- and maybe it was strange to admit- she had somewhat of a weakness for pretty purple eyes.

By around the ten minute mark, he hadn’t yet been joined by Kakyoin and that was a damn problem because that was about when the earthquake started.

By then, Jotaro had started to catch up with the person, and pumping his legs faster was starting to put him within arm’s reach. He could see the telltale signs- a shorter girl, waves of long white hair thrown back to the wind, a bow over her shoulders and a stone glove on her hand. All he needed to do was grab just a fistful of that hair and yank and he’d have her. Not even that- she was covered from the neck down in gloves, a scarf, the full works, which really didn’t make any sense for the hot as hell weather of New Zealand. All he needed to do was grab hold, and then the little shit had to slam that fist into the ground.

The ground underneath cracked suddenly, and Jotaro just managed to move out of the way of the worst of the fissure lines as trees around him began to come uprooted, tipping backwards away from the epicenter of the quake. Good grief- now in addition to a chase, he was going to have to spend needless energy on keeping himself balanced on the shaking pieces of the ground that were slowly being tossed his way by the worse tremors. Thankfully, Star was able to help in that regard, smashing through any rubble with well placed punches and “ORA”s.

The stand user navigated the scenery exceptionally well, but that was to be expected- obviously she would, considering that her stand was the cause of countless quakes over these past few weeks. There was too much to think about- why would she wait around there? Just what the hell was she trying to hide in this place?

Just how the hell was this little shit so easily spotted by Shila before?

No time to think about that. There was only time for action, hooking his hands onto one flying piece of earth and swinging on it to propel him forward. She was letting that stone gauntlet of hers drop multiple times in front of her, causing more and more quakes- whatever few visitor centers were out there in the wilderness were probably nothing more than dust at this point, but the sheer amount and size of the debris was making it easier to stay off the ground, at least. The last thing he needed was for some stupid shit like this to trip him up or something equally embarrassing, especially with the job that he was going to have to deal with.

The stand user finally stopped causing new epicenters, and she was still retreating. Jesus, why in the hell couldn’t these people just stand and fight? That would be making Jotaro’s job much easier than it was currently, and now with the loss of momentum and flying chunks of the earth’s surface, he had no other choice but to land on the still trembling ground, dodging as one tree, then another, then yet another, smashed down into the earth.

This chase was already tiring him, so rather than deal with ten more minutes of prolonged, boring chase through the woods in the middle of who the fuck knew where (hell, how could he describe a chase like that in a way that wasn’t boring as shit?), he just had Star stop time for the full limit of ten seconds and made a break for it.

It was much easier to get over rubble and pieces of earthen bullshit, Jotaro found, when it wasn’t shaking in some manner vaguely reminiscent of that bull Kakyoin dared him to ride once while the both of them were tipsy enough to consider doing stupid bullshit like that. Why had he done that again?

What prompted that particular, slightly weird memory was lost on Jotaro, but by the time he got around to wondering where that came from time had begun again and he had a good enough grip on this stand user’s clothes to pull her back, finally getting a good look at her face. Bright violet eyes peered back at him as she struggled, kicking her feet out. “Let me go! Dammit, get off of me, you damn ape!”

Strangely enough, she wasn’t calling her stand. It might have been a sign of submission- he’d seen stands that lost power once the user acknowledged that they’d lost before. Still, it was unnerving in how damn convenient it all was.

“I think you could stand to answer a few questions.” He said, finding a conveniently vaguely furniture shaped formation of newly formed rocks (just when would this streak of far too good luck end?) and settling in. He let Star Platinum take over the handling from there, and even if he could still feel the thrashing in his hands, there was nothing there and there was no chance of Star being hurt. And she did struggle, even while just changing hands, entire body trembling. It was a definite upgrade from the stoicism he’d been getting lately, and never before had Jotaro ever been so grateful to see a girl freaking out over pretty much nothing.

“No, I can’t. You have it all twisted!” She insisted, face going red and lips twitching in some lame attempt at hiding some emotion. She wasn’t a terribly good actor.

“So you weren’t just causing massive earthquakes, ones like those that’ve been going on for two weeks. And you didn’t just shoot an arrow at me and my partner and our guide.” Jotaro deadpanned. “First question- just how stupid do you think I am?”

The stand user swallowed thickly, eyes widening a bit. She finally stopped struggling as hard, hanging loose and limp against Star’s grip as she glared tearfully at him. This entire thing was already striking him as fucking annoying. So this was the stand user that was suspected to be bringing disasters to half the world? The stand that was apparently carrying out some nefarious purpose? Because all he was seeing was some fearful little woman.

“Okay, next question- where’s your stand? And why the hell aren’t you doing anything with it?” The girl swallowed again, blinking, and then spat in his direction before continuing to struggle. No answer on that front either- was she really being needlessly difficult? “I hate to hurt a girl, but if I don’t get some kind of answer…”

Star’s grip tightened around the user’s wrists and she swallowed a third time, before she started stuttering out some half assed answer. “It- I just--! It uh, only comes out at certain times and- and only when there’s a job to be done….”

There was some bullshit there, probably some secret to her stand’s powers, but honestly, it just struck Jotaro as off. Just what the fuck was wrong here?

He opened his mouth, but didn’t get to say anything else because in that moment Kakyoin finally caught up. Regrettably, he still had that annoying makeshift tour guide of theirs with him, and if Jotaro had been blinded by his own annoyance he might have missed the way the stand user’s eyes widened at the sight of Shila. Her arms were certainly shaking enough for it. Again, though, Shila looked at the scene with Jotaro apparently having a levitating girl in front of him with the same stoic, maybe even slightly cruel, expression.

“Well,” She said, rolling her shoulders nonchalantly. “looks like this freak of yours has this covered. Say Nori, where did you find some B-movie grade psychic shit like this guy in the first place?”

Jotaro bristled, and apparently so did Kakyoin, who got out with just the slightest bit of bite, “We’ve known each other for a while, but I suppose I’ve always had a sort of penchant for gathering bizarre companions.” Logically, Jotaro knew this was directed to the seemingly normal girl who was regarding what normal people would have figured to be psychic powers with a freakish stoicism. It still made him irritated, though- not at Kakyoin, but at this little shit, because she was still going on about things that weren’t her damn business. Still, there was a strange sort of look in Kakyoin’s eyes when he looked at Shila. So what exactly happened on the way up?

“At the very least, he seems to have everything under control.” Shila said, then continued on casually, “So since he’s fine here, why don’t you come back with me?”

With that, he politely nodded, looking apologetically over at Jotaro. “Meet us in the Underwater Observatory back at the resort, alright?”

“Wait- you’re going now? When we have this to deal with?” Jotaro ground out, looking incredulously at Kakyoin. He didn’t know what went on while they were coming up the mountain, but it couldn’t have been enough to have Kakyoin agreeing to go alone with this little bitch and leaving Jotaro alone with this. Besides, Kakyoin would probably need to talk to the Foundation, and they would have to figure out accommodations until the shitty old man could bring them back out to Japan. As far as Jotaro was concerned, even with how off this all was, if this Shila character really wasn’t a stand user, then she’d exhausted her reasoning for ever having to deal with the both of them ever again.

“There’s some things I want to do in town,” Kakyoin said smoothly, “and I need to look over what Shila’s observatory has on the quakes so far. Just so that we can possibly parse out any motive. You can help me when you get back- it shouldn’t take that long at all, and you know that.”

“.... Fine.” Jotaro muttered, watching the both of them turn away while fishing into his pocket for a phone to get a Foundation helicopter out here to pick up their errant stand user. When he looked back up, he caught Shila looking over her shoulder at him, and for the first time, she seemed to actually show some kind of emotion.

She was fucking smirking at him. She turned away, weaving her arm through a slightly tense looking Kakyoin’s.

With how much that Shila and her cocky attitude annoyed the hell out of him, Jotaro was surprised by his own restraint in not punching the smug little bitch.

The Speedwagon Foundation offered Jotaro a lift back to the resort, and considering the fact that he was out one annoying but necessary guide, he took them up on the offer. Now he sat in the back of the helicopter alongside the stand user, who had her hands done up in heavy lead gloves. It wasn’t a trick that worked with all stand users, but the Speedwagon Foundation found that the gloves hindered the ability of stand users to call out their stands, if they were object ones that they had to hold or wear.

The girl had finally stopped shaking, and now stared out the window, no expression at all crossing her face. Which was honestly grating on his nerves worse than if she would have been sitting there whimpering, honestly. Sure, the entire day left Jotaro with a pounding headache and was already grating on his nerves, but the idea of dealing with more stoic girls left him with a deep, exhausted ache throughout his entire body.

“I’m glad this is over- I can stop acting.” When the stand user spoke, it was quiet, in a calm, in control voice that made Jotaro want to shove her out the compartment. Still, it confirmed something- that there really was something off about all of this.

Jotaro waited a couple of moments to see if she would continue. When she didn’t, he said, “I am too. I can’t stand two faced acts. So just who the hell are you? And what were you doing here?”

“I’m Ten.” She said, then didn’t say anything again. Jotaro huffed out a breath, because of course- he got to deal with cryptic bullshit. Either that, or the little bitch was fucking with him, because she didn’t look a day under twenty. Either was just as plausible at this stage of the game, but that didn’t mean that Jotaro found it amusing in any way, shape, or form.

“That’s an unfortunate name. Now are you going to tell me anything useful?” She finally turned to look at him, blankly shook her head, and then turned back towards the approaching ground below. Jotaro guessed the helicopter ride couldn’t have taken much longer, and he was dispatched on the outskirts of town, near the first few buildings and a nearby ice cream parlor. His head throbbed, but at least now Jotaro could be left the hell alone with his throbbing head and his thoughts. And a cigarette. Which he sorely needed.

“Jotaro, are you really sulking by those starfish?”

Jotaro was most certainly not sulking, thank you very much. There were a lot of things that he did, and even if he could admit that sometimes actually showing emotions came a little harder to him, and even though that list of things usually included thinking or maybe, on very rare occasions, brooding, Jotaro Kujo did not sulk. That was a distinction that he would have expected Kakyoin to understand by then.

“No.” Was all he ended up saying because even giving that ridiculous notion any amount of petulant attention was just playing straight in Kakyoin’s hands, and Jotaro was not about to deal with some bullshit about comparing him with someone else. Or something else. Whatever.

Kakyoin took a moment to observe Jotaro’s back, because he wasn’t sitting there sulking- he was observing the starfish that clung to the glass, hiding partially in the branches of coral that made a miniature forest in front of him. He’d gotten to sit back and admire those giant faucets, so now it was Jotaro’s turn to go and see some real marvels of nature or something- there was no reason to even classify what Jotaro was doing as sulking. In fact, one starfish was just starting to wiggle along, moving towards the place where there were plenty of seashells to snack on. It was honestly calming, especially with the relatively dim lighting of the room and the ten meters deep of ocean outside.

Then Kakyoin said, “I got in touch with the Speedwagon Foundation- all the information Shila had here is pretty much already well known, so we’re due to be flown out of here soon enough. In fact, our pilot’s meeting me outside in a few minutes, so you wouldn’t mind staying here and watching over Shila, would you?” He sounded so ceaselessly casual in the request that it just added to the mounting annoyance from earlier. Honestly, it added to the mounting annoyance he’d had since the beginning of this entire goddamn day- meeting some twisted, two dimensional apparent alternate universe version of himself, having to deal with stand users who were weepy little bitches, having to deal with Shila’s entire shitty attitude and Kakyoin’s teasing was just a goddamn recipe for disaster. But they were almost done here, so he couldn’t complain there. Even if something was still eating at him, Jotaro was ready to go.

“Why don’t you stay, since she’s taken such a liking to you.”

“Because I need to run an errand, and you’re not exactly quick with little fetch quests.” Kakyoin said calmly as he rolled his eyes. “Besides, she needs to be taken to the Foundation anyway- if only because now she knows and has seen enough to the point of needing some quick education on why secrets are a wonderful thing to be keeping. I don’t expect that she’ll be anything less than cooperative- but just in case.”

Letting out a huff of a breath through his nose, he looked back towards the starfish. It was trying to eat a mollusk, gently prying away the shell to get at the soft body inside. “Fine.”

“Thank you- I’ll be right back.”

Jotaro was left alone in the observatory with a nagging at the back of his head that may have been yet another headache in the making. He really needed to invest in some Tylenol or some shit.

A little while later, once  Kakyoin had ascended the steps, Shila stepped out of the little backroom and joined Jotaro in the viewing area. He was hunched over near one corner of one of the spacious windows, watching the watery world outside. He wasn’t too interested in continuing any contact with Shila, but he supposed an interaction was unavoidable.

She stood beside him, silently watching the world outside and seemingly thinking of something to say. Then she said, “Nori’s pretty good company. You’re lucky.”

He was silent for a couple of beats before grunting in acknowledgement, face turning momentarily towards her. He was damn lucky to have Noriaki around- he wasn’t about to go and deny that- but it wasn’t as if he was keen on sharing just how deep their history went with some random bitch who was then snorting, flippantly saying, “It’s kinda fucking rude to not participate in a conversation, but I think we’ve established that you’re kind of a freak, so let’s gloss over that. I have something to say.”

“Well, get on with it.”

“You were right, you know.”

He didn’t know what she was talking about at first, but the moment her hands and forearms glowed, he understood everything.

Jotaro managed to dodge the first swing of Shila’s glove clad fist, the wall behind him cracking with a fine tremor running through it as the spikes running up the gloves surface and up her forearm to where it ended at the elbow sparked a bit. He goddamn knew it- there had been something off about this bitch from the first time he laid eyes on her, and dammit, he should have just gone with his gut instincts in the first place and knocked her into the next calendar year!

She was grinning wildly now, a mirthful twinkle in her eye as she dropped the imitation overcoat that she’d been donning this entire time. Underneath, her clothes were much more cheerful, neon colored and shining with the bright logo of some sugary pop band or another in a language he couldn’t read. She gave an overly ostentatious show of stretching her arms over her head, rolling her shoulders. “Man, it feels good to get that all off of my shoulders! Let me tell you, you were a pain to play! So serious… so boring!”

His eyes narrowed, because of course, just when he thought his day couldn’t get any more annoying- this happens. He must have done something in a past life, or one of his ancestors must have fucked up their shitty Joestar destiny, if he was apparently getting this as punishment. Before she could get another punch in, Jotaro had Star summoned and ready, his stand’s fist coming to meet the one coming straight for him.

Star countered Shila’s attack, but even then, Jotaro nearly feel to the ground with the sudden pain shooting up from his hand. He stepped back a few steps as the bones in his right hand rattled, then splintered in places that was already sending a spew of blood out his fingers. He grunted lowly to himself as he had Star about to attack, but then that damnable little wench had to open her suddenly over peppy mouth. “Ah-ah-ah, Mr. Jotaro Kujo! I wouldn’t do that if I were you- you know where we are, right?” She swept an arm out theatrically towards one of the windows, the glass slightly cracked and leaking, “Ten meters deep, with only a few oxygen masks in places only I and the scientists here know about! If you make one wrong move, or if I decide to punch you a little too hard, you’re going to be suffering a slow, painful death in this ocean you love so much! Oh, the tragedy! The pure theatrical irony!”

She was grinning all the while, animatedly moving, playfully speaking even with the cruel words spilling out of her mouth. Jotaro let out a little ‘tch’ of annoyance, but stood back. There were others here, as far as he could tell, scientist types and tour guides deeper in trying to prepare for an influx of tourists. He just had to figure out a way to get back at this little bitch, and he’d be golden- after all, this wasn’t the toughest foe he’d ever faced, not by a long shot.

“Nothing to say, hm?” Shila hummed, then sighed dramatically and let the grin drop down into a more subtle little smile. “Well, that’s fine- I’ve always loved a captive audience.”

“So what the hell are you, some circus reject?” He quipped, watching her and the rest of the circular room warily.

“No- I’m the one who’s going to be killing you today.” She smiled deviously before dipping into a low bow, mockingly subservient. “My name is Shila, and this,” She stood straight up, holding her hands up and letting the polished stone dully reflect back the world around her, “is Mountain’s Hammer, the stand that suggests the Knight of Pentacles. I’m afraid my employers have been very… descriptive, about the ways in which you, that damned redhead and your organization have been- how you say- fucking us all over.”

So this was the real stand user, and not the girl with white hair and the faux glove. He was going to have to report that back to the Foundation that it looked like there were more big name stand users with more powers to look into. After this, of course, and after he got that glass patched up- the dripping sound was driving him up the fucking wall and he didn’t want anything that might have latched onto the glass to be hurt because of this bitch’s theatrics.

Suddenly, Jotaro vehemently missed the exasperating stoicism and ornery bullshit.

Just as he had a plan gathered together with the use of those brochure holders, Star Platinum, and the momentum needed to break through that likely bulletproof glass, Shila seized up. Glowing green tendrils trapped her entire body, and where one of Mountain’s Hammers had been raised to strike the ground, it was kept still.

Jotaro’s head whipped around, alarmed for a moment before recognizing Kakyoin on the the railing of the stairs, legs casually folded and flanked on either side by Speedwagon Foundation personnel like he was the especially well compensated crime boss with the police in his pocket, a pair of shades resting on his face. Jotaro fucking bet that that was just because he wanted to look cool. Jotaro couldn’t rail on someone for doing that though- he did the same thing.

“I think I’ve heard enough.” Kakyoin said calmly, a smirk on his face.

Shila’s eyes widened and she thrashed in her bonds, to no avail. The majority of the tendrils were binding her fingers in those gloves, so there was no chance of causing an earthquake, and Jotaro got special satisfaction from that fact as Kakyoin hopped off his perch and stood beside him, still looking triumphant all the while. “You know, next time, you should pick a better actress as a lackey, because she did a piss poor job acting like you.”

Her face went bright red with what Jotaro could only assume was anger as she huffed, pouting at Kakyoin petulantly. “Oh really- you’re not even going to let me have my big finale? The climax of this? Are we really about to end this so anticlimatically?”

“Sorry to say, but it’s...” In that moment, Kakyoin, who didn’t at all need the shades what with it being dim as all hell down there, took off his shades, looking Shila directly in the eye as he said, “curtains for you.”

Shila rolled her head back and groaned loudly and melodramatically. “That was awful. What you just did right there was awful. I can forgive the impromptu bondage, especially from someone attractive, but I can’t get behind such shitty one liners! And I was even going try and spare you, make you a good part of our story.”

“Who’s story?” Jotaro spoke up, figuring that they may as well get something out of her. To that, Shila just laughed in his face.

“Wouldn’t you like to know! Sorry, but I don’t answer questions from assholes who make my roles a living hell.”

“Well, would you answer one question for me?” Kakyoin asked.

“Well for a darling like you, I don’t see why not.”

“Why act like Jotaro? If his personality were really so abhorrent to you…”

Shila just shrugged at that, letting out a little amused breath. “At first I was just doing it to be funny. But then you… well, you had such amusing reactions that I couldn’t resist. What can I say, I have a weakness for eyes like yours.”

Jotaro’s headache was back full force. At least all this shit was over.

Before long, they were on a plane out, and Jotaro sat on the aisle, trying to lean forward to look out of Kakyoin’s window so that he had something to do other than acknowledge the old hag next to him that reeked of something probably less than legal to be bringing onto a plane.

“It’s bullshit that they couldn’t get the white haired… girl’s, stand name or information out of her.” Jotaro eventually said, watching Kakyoin turn to face him out of the corner of his eye. He was still trying to get out of that entire bad habit of casually disrespecting women that didn’t deserve his bullshit, but when he had popping ears and a ringing headache, it made it slightly hard. “She was a shit actor but apparently she can keep her trap shut enough.”

Kakyoin nodded in agreement. “That really is such bullshit, and I couldn’t agree more. Still, you have to admit- this entire adventure was somewhat amusing.”

“For who?” Jotaro said, despite already knowing the answer by the mischievous glint in Kakyoin’s eye.

“For me, I suppose. For Shila too, maybe, though you don’t like hearing that.” Kakyoin had some damn nerve, finding humor in this entire bizarre fucking day. “I mean, did you wake up this morning and think to yourself, ‘gee, I think we may meet a bastardized female version of myself and her albino companion out at this ocean resort and accompanying national park’? Because I didn’t wake up this morning expecting that. In fact, I was expecting three more weeks of prowling around town, the jungle, the ocean, the center of the earth, and the ideological strengths of the absurdist movement as a whole before finding anything conclusive, and just look what happened today! Simply amazing, what kind of bullshit we seem to find.”

“Easy for you to say- you didn’t have your entire seventeen year old personality echoing back at you like some shitty Back to the Future esque bullshit.” Jotaro huffed,

“Pre or post Egypt?”

“Yes.”

Kakyoin snorted, before looking out the window as well at the clear blue sky and layer of clouds below them. Then, after a couple of moments of silence, he said, “I should have picked up on it sooner. All the signs were there- but I bet you already saw all the red flags from the moment she uttered ‘good grief’, right?”

“Actually, I didn’t start suspecting anything until she rejected your gentlemanly act. The charming one.” Jotaro said, and Kakyoin blinked, looking back at him in bewilderment.

“Gentlemanly act? I don’t purposefully put on any act to charm anyone. Not that I see… That’s just myself being polite.” He had to be kidding.

“That entire routine where you take their hands and act all sweet with them? That entire romcom Disney prince bullshit? Noriaki, you do this pretty much any time you want something from someone you don’t know or give a damn about, especially if they’re some random girls.” Jotaro could not believe for a second that Kakyoin wasn’t at least somewhat cognizant of this fact. There was a slight look of discomfort on Kakyoin’s face before suddenly, he smiled.

“Jotaro, I think that’s the first time you’ve called me by my first name.” Noriaki said with a large, genuine smile on his face. "That's touching, truly- are we really ready to take this so far forward? We're not moving too fast in this, are we? Two years of friendship and now I finally know that you actually know my name..." If he weren’t a close friend, Jotaro might have wanted to punch that little look straight off his face, but as it were, he just looked adamantly to the seat ahead of him. Kakyoin's excitement at just that little thing was kind of dumb, but Jotaro liked that it made him happy. It was nice to know that for some reason Kakyoin acted like it meant something to him.

“I’m going to sleep.” Jotaro decided to say before turning away completely, facing the lady and reaching down to grab the blanket he’d taken onto this flight. It was still light out, but that was fading fast, and the sooner this day was over, the better.

“Alright, have your beauty sleep.” He was teased one last time before Kakyoin finally turned away, from the sound of it. “Good night, JoJo. Sweet dreams.”

“Yeah, likewise, Noriaki.”

[aquatictimes]

On top of this, in marine tanks a surprising number of fish are highly toxic, and can sting, bite or otherwise cause you harm (some produce toxins over the slime coat). It’s not always obvious which the toxic fish is, either. These tanks are usually labelled, but why take the risk??

On top of this!! Many larger freshwater fish can do considerable damage when provoked. I know a guy who worked with a silver arowana a little larger than this and it drew blood every time he did tank maintenance. And what if the fish jumps?? Or another fish in the tank?? Just leave them alone!

This is entirely unacceptable!

This is the kind of thing you tell children, but I guess some adults have regressed that far; you should NEVER stick your hand in a fish tank at a store. It stresses the fish, and you could harm the fish. If it isn’t yours, and there isn’t a sign that says “please touch!” don’t touch!

You should never touch fish unless it’s absolutely necessary. The oil and bacteria on your hand are damaging to the fish’s slime coat, it stresses to the fish, and if the fish is larger or more aggressive, you may get bit.

I’ll be honest, as much as I don’t like seeing fish get handled inappropriately; if you own the fish, you can touch it if you feel that strongly about it, but not at a store. That is an $80 Arowana.

The worst part about this is this was posted on an aquarium channel on youtube. So now, all of the people who see this video and see someone who runs an aquarium channel touching and “playing” with a fish at a pet store will think this is acceptable. IT’S NOT!

Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research.

[unfamiliarfame]

#BLCI #Chapter_27-Prince Mermaid and a princess

27 Prince Mermaid and a princess

Shocking Facts.

Platy was a princess in the land of mermaids.

「Platy! Thank God I finally found you! 」

The noble mermaid named Arowana or something like that, as soon as he found Platy, a gentle relief came over his face.

「It's been months since you've been dazed. After you covered up whereabouts for several months, we were looking for you with blood in our eyes!. Recently one of the search party reported that he had seen a figure of yours on a bank so remote from the others, thus led a party with me! 」

I see.

It was an immediate line that gave me an abrupt sense of how things had gone so far.

「Father and mother care about you more than ever, so come home with me! 」

「I don't want to.」

Platy flatly refused at once.

If you're dealing with a family member, it would be better if they were a little gentler... I wonder if it is because my current position is a stranger?

「let me ask you this, why would your brothers want to bring you back? 」

「Of course! Because we care about you as a family.」

「No you don't, because it hurts to lose a pawn in a political marriage, doesn't it? 」

She declared it with great zest.

There seems to be some troublesome family situation.

「But alas, I have married to the man I have chosen for myself to him! 」

Platy pushes me forward with a thud.

「I have devoted myself and my heart to this man! so I can't marry anyone else, please tell father and mother that! 」

「What did you say? 」

Mr. Arowana are shocked by those words.

He looked in despair as if she had a charlatan boyfriend, the cute little sister he had cared for since she was a child.

...or is that exactly what happened?

「...Oh, you land lad!　It's a great way to start your day.　Everyone!　Keep fighting!!　I'm going to tear that bastard and take back platy out of his hands! 」

The mermaid soldiers in line took up the harpoon in response. . . . .

『Stop! 』

A single roar from Vielle shattered his courage and caused a total collapse.

「Oh my God!? What's wrong with that dragon? Is it on the side of the land dweller?」

Only Prince Arowana manages to hold his ground, but the rest of the soldiers are so afraid that they run away without waiting for orders.

「 Prince! This is dangerous! Order to withdraw! 」

「 It is not enough for us to devote ourselves to dealing with the Dragon! We should report this to the Emperor and ask for his instructions! 」

The mermaid soldiers were crushed by the power of the dragon without a fight.

Your brother is still not ready to move from the spot.

Everyone else has fled into deeper water.

『Well, there was only one left? 』

Vielle cast a brutal look.

『The Daughter of the Geyser Dragon. I commend you for your bravery in the face of me, the Grinzel dragon, for not being afraid to run away. As a reward, I'll make you ashes in an instant! 』

「Don't do it.」

I gave Vielle a good punch in the shins in her dragon form.

『 Ow! 』

「I don't know what's going on, but he's Platy's brother right? If so then he is not a stranger. Do you think you can kill such a man? 」

『I'm sorry...! 』

「People are too freaked out to talk about it when you're in that form, so get in human form Otherwise, I won't make you any more good food. 」

When I say this, Vielle becomes exceptionally quiet.

With a shudder, the dragon's massive body shrinks, and a beautiful silver-haired girl, Vielle, appears.So the pressure of the dragons swirling around this place disappeared.

「there there, good girl」

「ehehe ………… (giggle)」

I caressed her head as a reward for being honest.

「A dragon listening to the orders of a human? ……… What the heck! 」

「 oniisan.」

I get as far underwater as I can and reach out to Platy's brother, Prince Arowana.

「You and I just met. We don't know anything about each other, and why don't we have one long discussion here? 」

「What? 」

「I have a house on the land. If you'd like, you can get a bite to eat there and tell me more about Platy.」

My suggestion was met with protests from next to me, not from the front.

「Darling, I don't want to be a part of this.」

「I own this place.」

They leapt back

「It's up to me to decide who to invite and welcome to my house. Platy。 Can't you listen to your husband? 」

「Ugh...? 」

After saying that much, Platy said nothing but shunned.

「You're a surprisingly husbandly ningen.」

I felt Vielle say something beside me, but I decided not to listen.

「 I never thought the feisty Platy would be so obedient... well, good...! 」

And Prince Alowana, the party concerned, agrees to my proposal.

「As a mermaid royalty it would be a badge of honour if I don't respond to a challenge, I accept your feast! 」

Good answer.

「Well, let me show you home. Can you go ashore like Platy with your tail fins turned into legs?」

「Of course! 」

Platy's brother Arowana said.

When he comes ashore in his half-human half-fish state, he takes the drug and changes his shape significantly his lower body glowing just like his sister Platy's.

Prince Arowana's fish's tail fin was strong perhaps because he was male and reminded me of a migratory fish like a tuna. Even though he has become humanized and has two legs he still looks powerful.

It's a man's foot with agile-looking muscles.

And yet another thing, the strong part of the man...

「…………！」

It was the same with Platy.

The lower half of a mermaid's body, which has changed from fish form to human form, is as naked as the fish.

The manly thing that hung between the humanized Alois's legs was more obscene than anything else.

「cover it quickly!!」

「Oh, my I beg your pardon 」

Arowana took out the shorts he seemed to be carrying and put it on with a jerk.

Why shorts?

Moreover, the design was a boomerang type.