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duhragonball · 2 months ago

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Stardust Crusader Liveblog: JJBA ch.133-139

Oh look he's doing the thing with the cherries! The cherry thing means rero.

Last time Jotaro fought an porno-mag-reading, Rubik's Cube solving orangutan and the big twist was that he entire freighter they were fighting on was the Enemy Stand the whole time. And yeah, that's a big twist, but if you go back and read that last sentence again, it kind of feels like there were some other candidates to consider.

Anyway, the ship collapses after the organutan's defeat, so I think it's safe to say Jotaro killed it. I mean, either he beat it to death, or he clobbered it so hard that it can't keep the Stand operational, and they're leaving it to drown in the ocean.

I mean that's fine by me. That orangutan killed all those sailors and I'm pretty sure it wanted to do unspeakable things to a little kid, so rest in pieces, you damn dirty ape. I'm just trying to get a better sense of the Joestar Group's use of lethal force.

The survivors get back in their lifeboat and wait for assistance. Joseph and Advol are both anxious about how overwhelmed they were, Kakyoin and Jotaro are too cool to say anything, and Polnareff offers to share his gum.

They eventually make it to Singapore, a town famous for its harsh fines and other punishments. For example, this cop tries to fine Polnareff $500 for littering, but Polnareff's luggage just happens to look exactly like a garbage bag, so it's just a big misunderstanding.

I guess I should mention this for younger readers: In 1994, there was a big to-do over a US American teenager, Michael Fay, who was sentenced to caning for vandalism and stealing road signs in Singapore. This is pretty routine in Singapore, but Fay was a U.S. citizen and just a tad over 18, so the news media was all over this story. President Clinton and the State Department tried to intervene, but as I recall, the public wasn't very sympathetic towards Fay. The "Bart vs. Australia" episode of the Simpsons was inspired by Fay's ordeal in Singapore.

I'm pretty sure the Michael Fay story was how "Singapore canes" were introduced into professional wrestling. Wrestlers were whacking each other with all kinds of nutty objects, but the news cycle was being dominated by explanations of how this was no mere spanking, and the cane they would use on Fay would be extremely painful. So it was only a matter of time before someone used that lore to get a rise out of the live crowd.

I don't have strong feelings about what happened to Fay. At the time it seemed to me that he made his own bed, and if you're going to go to another country and fuck around, you can't cry foul when they subject you to their rules. On the other hand, Singapore claims their corporal punishment keeps their city cleaner than places like New York, which is kind of like saying Jotaro cured the orangutan of his nicotine addiction. I mean, if your only way to control vandalism is through state sactioned beatings, can you really take pride in that?

Anyway, everyone has a good chuckle over Polnareff's litterbug charge, including Anne, the girl who is somehow still following them even though they tried to give her the brush-off when they reached Singapore. She claims she's meeting up with her dad in five days, but no one really buys that. They just know she'll be in danger if she sticks with the Stardust Crusade. Joseph asks Pol to gently offer her free lodging, but Polnareff has no subtly, so he just tells her they're taking pity on her for being poor.

Moving on, the gang checks into their hotel, and Polnareff finds another Enemy Stand User in his room. Specifically, the guy hides in the mini-fridge, which Polnareff catches because all the drinks are sitting conspicuously on the counter. It's a pathetic strategy, and Pol defeats the guy with ease, and then he falls off the balcony and vanishes.

Polnareff calls Joseph and Avdol to warn them, and... they're sharing a room? Well, Avdol explains that this guy's Stand is powered by hatred, so his strategy is to provoke his target into attacking first. So Polnareff has already playing into this dude's hands.

Polnareff is about to head down to convene with the others, but he can't find his hotel key, and he hasn't noticed the creepy doll in his room. I guess he just thinks that's a traditional Singaporean hotel decoration? Hell, maybe it is. Most of what I know about Singapore was the caning stuff, and the movie Crazy Rich Asians.

So yeah, the doll was the Enemy Stand the whole time. Shocker. This is "The Devil", and it hid Pol's key under his bed, so that when he crawled under it to get it, Devil could lasso both of his wrists with electrical cords. Then Devil saws off two of the legs of the bed to partially collapse the bed on Polnareff, and then Devil squirts shampoo in his face.

From there, Devil plans to stab a spear through the mattress and torture Polnareff to death. Pol brings out Silver Chariot to defend himself, except he can't see Devil from under the bed, so Chariot is fighting blind.

I'm not sure this idea holds up after all these years. I mean, Silver Chariot has eyes, and it can go places where Polnareff cannot. So why can't it see independently of Pol's position? I'm pretty sure other Stands work this way. Maybe Silver Chariot is different. I'm used to thinking of it like Star Platinum, but with a sword instead of fists.

At first I thought maybe this had more to do with the shampoo in Pol's eyes, but later in the fight he can see just fine. The only problem he has is the poor vantage of being under the bed.

Also, the whole idea of Stands and their Users reflecting each other's damage has never been very consistent. Here, Devil bites Silver Chariot, and a similar bite appears on Polnareff's neck. That makes sense. But you could argue that this should also apply to the arms. Since Pol's arms are tied down, shouldn't that mean Silver Chariot can't move his arms either? Well, a rule like that would probably break Stands, so maybe it's better we don't go with this. Still, I'm pretty sure that's happened a time or two.

Yeah, like that time Koichi used Echoes Act III to make Sheer Heart Attack super-heavy, and then Kira could barely lift his right hand. Maybe that only works when you restrain the Stand's body, not the User.

More importantly, Devil is going to bite Polnareff's dick off.

Well, actually, he has a different plan, which involves throwing all the liquor from the mini fridge onto the floor around Polnareff. Then he's going to toss a hair-dryer into the mess to electrocute him. I don't know, biting Pol's dick off sounds like a much worse thing to do to him. This almost seems like mercy.

But it doesn't matter because Pol can see Devil just fine now. Chariot broke a mirror during the fight, and one of the shards on the floor gives him a great view of the top of the bed. So Devil's advantage has been neutralized.

And that was kind of all Devil had going for it. It's got some power, I suppose, but mostly it's just vicious and mean. In a fair fight, it folds as quickly as the user did. Pol takes this opportunity to interrogate the enemy, but Devil says Stand Users never reveal their powers, so he doesn't know what the other bad guys can do, and he wouldn't tell anyone if he did.

As for the Stand User, he's been lurking in a hotel restroom this whole time. When Polnareff finally beats Devil, he slices him up good, and that damage is reflected upon the user. Not sure if he's dead or not, but now that they know how his Stand works, he won't be much of a threat.

Polnareff finally arrives at Joseph's room to tell the others what happened, and they scold him for being late to their "How do we Beat The Devil" meeting.

Some time later, Joseph decides to check in on Dio before they leave Singapore for India. He doesn't have a camera this time, but Joseph tells Avdol he doesn't need one, and uses Hermit Purple on the TV instead.

I guess this means Joseph has been practicing or something? One way or another, he's definitely improved his technique, since he doesn't have to destroy the TV to get the information he wants. Also, there's a lot more Hermit Purple coming out of his arms than there used to be. Eventually, he'll be swinging around like Spider-Man with this stuff, but it seems like he hasn't gotten to that point yet.

Unlike the spirit photography he used before, this trick switches channels on the TV in such a way as to make sentences from the words uttered by multiple characters and performers. Ha ha, Amogus.

The gist of the message is that Noriaki Kakyoin is a traitor, but that doesn't make much sense. Kakyoin was already a secret agent for Dio, and they removed the Flesh Bud and he switched sides. So what is he? A triple agent? Before Joseph can get any further details, Dio intercepts the signal and blows up the TV? I guess this is the same destructive force that ruined those cameras before, and if Dio has the same power as Joseph, then it makes sense he could project it offensively like this.

Meanwhile, Jotaro treats Kakyoin and Anne to coconuts. Anne wanted ice cream, but whatever. The important thing is that some guy tries to steal Kakyoin's wallet.

Kak catches the guy with Heirophant Green, then puts him in Lex Luger's Torture Rack. Anne calls it a back-breaker, but I'm pretty sure that's the move where you drop a guy back-first onto your bent knee. This is unusually brutal for Kakyoin, and Jotaro has to shove him aside to save the pickpocket.

This goes to show Jotaro's sense of fair play. He clobbered the fuck out of the orangutan, and Kakyoin himself when he was a bad guy, but that was in response to life-or-death situations. Here, Kakyoin got his wallet back almost immediately, and the pickpocket isn't even a Stand User, so what does it accomplish to torture him this way?

Shortly after this, Kak continues to act weird, then eats a rhinocerous beetle. Anne briefly wonders if it was just the rind of his coconut, but now, he turns around and gives her a good look at the bug parts. It really says something that this and the "Rero Rero" face are in the same arc, and no one ever really talks about this one.

For that matter, Jotaro finally gets fed up with Kakyoin's shit and punches him, and then Kakyoin's jaw comes off, but nope! Still not as creep as the cherry thing. At last, "Kakyoin" finally admits that he's just an impostor using his Stand, Yellow Temperance, to assume Kakyoin's appearance. Yellow Temperance has the ability to consume organic matter, so it can be seen and felt by normal people like Anne.

That's all well and good, but we saw Heirophant Green capture the pickpocket. That must have been a tendril from Yellow Temperance, disguised to look like Heriophant, but does that mean Anne saw it?

Also, how does this guy know what Heirophant Green even looks like? Maybe Dio drew him a picture?

So the bulk of this fight is a chase among the cable cars in Singapore. When Jotaro punched "Kakyoin", some of the Yellow Temperance slime got on his hand, and it's slowly digesting him. He can't hit the Stand without getting even more on him, and he can't hit the user because he wears the Stand like a gooey yellow suit of armor. Jotaro jumps out of the car to get some space, but distance has no effect on Yellow Temperance's digestion. Heat just makes it worse.

So Jotaro hops into a second cable car and takes a kid's popsicle, hoping cold will have some effect on the Yellow Temperance slime. No such luck. Now he's going to lose a hand, and he owes that kid another popsicle.

But the kid has bigger problems, as this lady in the car turns out to be the Yellow Temperance user in another diguse. He eats the kid's dog, and when they try to pull the dog free it just comes apart at the neck. I keep forgetting Hirohiko Araki's grudge with dogs.

Jotaro tries to whack the guy with a pipe, I guess so that way he can use Star Platinum's power without making physical contact, but it makes no difference. Yellow Temperance is both armor and weapon, and it really does seem to have no weaknesses.

Jotaro admits that he might be in trouble, but he's still got one move left to play, the old Joestar strategy...

Retreat. It's an awesome Part 2 reference, but it doesn't do any good, since we've already established that Yellow Temperance's ability doesn't fade with distance from the user. Besides, they're all tangled up together now, so he can't actually get away from the user, but that's not the point.

The point was to get the dude into the water below, where Jotaro could hold him under the surface until he either drowned or deactivated his Stand enough to be hit. Now that Jotaro has him beaten, he interrogate the guy, and learns that J. Geil, the guy Polnareff is hunting for, is one of the Enemy Stand Users working for Dio. His powers have something to do with mirrors, but that's all Yellow Temperance guy knows.

He still tries to sucker Jotaro in by sending his Stand through a manhole and out of a drainpipe to catch Jotaro unaware, but this backfires, as Jotaro uses Star Platinum to... punch water up the pipe, which knocks the manhole cover off and throws him back into the water.

Anyway, the gang all meet up to take the train to India, and the real Kakyoin turns out to be almost as creepy as the impostor. Meanwhile, Anne is on the same train, still following Jotaro.

#jojo's bizarre adventure #stardust crusaders #jotaro kujo #joseph joestar #mohammed avdol #jean pierre polnareff #noriaki kakyoin #dio brando #anne

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silent-sanctum · 2 years ago

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The Part 3 Dilemma

I have one of this random thoughts of mine and it's about one of the complaints about Stardust Crusaders

"I dropped at Part 3 because the plot dragged too long" "The Monster-of-the week trope made it boring"

Personally, I don't mind it (thanks to Jotaro's presence tbh). But I do understand why others feel that way. I feel like the reason Araki decided to stick with that set-up is because for one, it's a shonen series (a.k.a a manga who's targeted for young boys), and two that it's because it's his way of experimenting with a new power system.

So, you can't really blame a guy who wanted to test things out in the beginning rather than to focus on writing a more engaging story, more so when him knowing that the introduction of Stands and their powers was able to bring him the most commercial success.

But from a writer's perspective and someone who watches a lot of shows, I think what made SC such a sludge to get through is this part's lack of subplots.

What do I mean by that? Let me explain:

"A subplot is a narrative thread that is woven through the media to support the elements of the main plot. A subplot can build out the conflict in the main plot or it can be a vehicle for a secondary character's storyline."

Essentially, it's a method of fleshing out the story more by introducing the audience a side story to either tackle a theme that's related to the main plot or develop a character more to better understand their purpose in the story.

Now let's look at Part 3

The central point of this part is that a big bad has returned to wreak havoc on the Joestars and the world and it's the heroes' job is to get rid of him once and for all. It's odyssey-based where we get to see the guys go on this journey and fight the bad guys until they reach the final stage.

But because this part involves just that- the fighting bad guys part- for 40+ episodes, it bores the audience because of how repetitive it's becoming. There's nothing else it has going on for it to keep the audience engaged.

There's a significant lack of subplots to enhance their journey to Egypt.

Compare that to the other parts…

Part 4: A slice-of-life/murder mystery plot that focuses on the stories of its residents (e.g. Koichi's development, Okuyasu's family issues, Yukako's obssesion, Rohan's antics as a mangaka, Josuke's bond with Joseph), before tying them into the main plot in the second half (e.g. Reimi's murder, the involvement of the Stand arrow, focus on Kira's mind as a psychopathic serial killer) Part 5: Got to look into the past of each of Bucciarati's crew: Giorno and Bucciarati's childhood, Mista's pre-Stand user life, Abbachio's past as a cop, Diavolo and Trish's dynamic, Fugo's history with his anger issues. There's also the involvement of the Stand arrow, brief focus on La Squadra's perspective, etc. Part 6: Explores the characters of Ermes (seeking justice for the death of her sister), FF (their path of finding their identity), delving deep into DIO's psyche about "attaining heaven", Weather Report's history with Pucci and Perla, and the estranged bond between Jolyne and Jotaro.

This is Araki improving his craft but when we compare that to Part 3, we can see that P3 only got the "fighting enemies until we reach the boss" plot going on. And that's tedious to get past.

Sure we got one subplot going: Polnareff's quest of avenging the death of his sister.

His purpose of joining the Crusaders in the first place was to find the killer. It's been tackled for more than one episode and in the process, we see him form rapport with the allies he made while still sticking to his mission, allowing the audience to connect to the Frenchman more (even to the point where they start to joke that he's the main protagonist instead of Jotaro)

But what of the rest? What of the development of the other Crusaders?

Kakyoin and his past as a lonely child born with a Stand?

How Avdol met Joseph, and what his motivation was to continue working with the latter?

Maybe a subtle foreshadowing of Joseph's infidelity or how he's doing in New York prior to the quest?

Heck maybe even a background as to why Jotaro turned to delinquency when in the past, he's seen or viewed as a regular happy child who does well and is active in school?

Instead, what we got is Kak's past revealed as a last minute attempt to make us feel sympathy for him as he's dying, Avdol died without much going about him, Joseph is just there to be the secondary Jojo, and 3taro is most of the fandom's worst version of Jotaro because at a surface level, he's seen only as a rude standoffish teenager who does not emote for no reason.

We don't get to connect with the Crusaders as much or as deep because we don't know them outside of "we're here to defeat the big evil" and a bunch of fighting.

tldr: Not enough character development because there's too much of the "beat the bad guys and win"

I don't know. It's just my personal take because usually when I consume media, I tend to get hooked onto the story when there's mini stories that fleshes out the overarching theme.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk

#jojos bizarre adventure #stardust crusaders #jotaro kujo #jojo part 3 #mijin thoughts

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miquellah · 9 months ago

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the other day i was thinking “huh yknow, araki REALLY like the trope of death fake-outs. but its not like he does it too much either lol” until i started thinking More and i was like ohhh. oh no. no as far as EYE know (parts 1-6), he really does it EVERY time

Part 1- dio death fakeout. like twice (beheaded then coffin. and the manor burning too i think, jesus)

Part 2- stroheim’s deal, then joseph showing up to his own funeral

Part 3- avdol that one time (this sucked tho). joseph fakeout again

Part 4- stray cat if you think about it. okuyasu

Part 5- bruno…… and then sort offff the whole chariot requiem thing

Part 6- foo fighters on that damn electric chair. and then sort of?? the souls reincarnating even when pucci said they wouldnt

if theres more examples past this DONT TELL ME!! SPOILERS. but also i think its very neat. and araki himself has this thing where he like… he plays story beats, where if this was an average american comic, it’d be overplayed and trite. characters coming back from the dead Just Because or parallel universes for the bullshit of it. but he (just about) always makes sure that he gets the bullshit plot beats like death fakeouts to stick, and even kind of evolves it.

i like ragging on araki every once in a while BUT… i think he is so cool

#txt #jojoposting

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darkdevasofdestruction · 11 months ago

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Chapter 2 - The Devil, In Reverse

Everyone was staring up at the large ship in front of them with different degrees of reticence - Except for Polnareff, who seemed the least bit afraid of any possible danger that might arise out of boarding such a phantasm... Not that they had much of a choice to begin with. The ramp was laid down for them, yet no human seemed to be there to greet them. Was that not how rescue parties were supposed to operate? To see whether there was anyone who needed any kind of medical assistance? How peculiar. Not only that, but the rest of the Stand Users had bubbling nervousness in their chest as the fog thickened around the ship, making it look even more ominous than before.

One by one, Polnareff led the sailors out of their lifeboat, while the party could only stare back in defeat. What could they do, anyway? Noriaki helped his sister up on the ramp and lingered behind, just long enough to see the cheeky Anne refuse Jotaro's helping hand, just to jump into Joseph's arms. Children truly were annoying.

The Stardust Crusaders went to do a quick rain check of the situation - Not only was there no captain in the room, but there were no engineers either. The stirring wheel was navigating by itself, as if manipulated by some divine power; Likewise, the same was true with all the gauges and machinery, all of them working normally.

The only living being they found on the ship was an ape, sitting idly in a cage... Or was it an orangutan? Regardless, Kisara was absolutely terrified by it and the vibe it gave off. Unconsciously, she took a step back behind her brother. "That thing is giving me the creeps." she muttered into his ear. "It's just a stupid monkey. We ain't gonna get it out of its cage anyway." Polnareff shrugged his shoulders passively. "That doesn't take away from how uncomfortable it's making me feel." the girl grumbled in annoyance. "Let's just go out and see how Avdol has been doing with the crew." Joseph rolled his eyes, calling out for them to follow him outside, just in time to witness a swinging hook catch one of the sailor the same way a master fisherman would catch fish.

"Yare Yare... This isn't any way to greet a lady, now, is it?" before either of the two girls could see too much of the gore, Jotaro covered their eyes with his hands; He was glaring with analysing eyes at the hook - No one was touching the controls of the mechanism, nobody touched the lever - It couldn't be a man-made accident, could it? Everyone saw it, the crane moved on its own. Something was definitely happening here.

Joseph warned everyone not to touch anything that uses electricity to work, and to get into the cabin whilst they finish investigating. Anne took small steps to get inside, yet still looked at the party with fearful eyes. "Kisara, will you go with Anne? I need the attentive eye of a woman there to look for any trace of an enemy Stand user." "Sure. Just be careful out here." Kisara nodded her head, watching Joseph kneel in front of the little girl, smiling like a protective grandpa. "Anne, I can tell you one thing - We are going to protect you - So make sure you stay with Kisara and the others, okay?" he patted her head warmly. "Okay!" Anne took Kisara's hand and pulled her inside the ship, yet not before the older girl noticed Hierophant Green going out to investigate through the tightest crevasses of the ship.

The two strolled around the cabin, investigating most of the rooms, and though they knew close to nothing about their origins or what they served as, the fact that there was no living being in sight, attempting to control the ship, was peculiar to no end. After exiting the captain's front chamber, they had the misfortune of seeing that damn monkey again; Kisara couldn't help but shudder, looking away uncomfortably. But Anne wasn't afraid - In fact, she seemed to be rather intrigued, and the ape picked up on it, for it pointed towards the keyhole, urging her to help it escape. It was a rather smart thing, even going out of its way to offer the girl half of his neatly cut apple. In fact, even she realised that it seemed to have been cut with a knife, and it hadn't gone brown yet; It must have been cut rather recently.

The most rational thought was that its caretaker must have brought it the apple - But no, that wasn't it. Kisara realised the monkey cut the apple by itself, no doubt - If it could light up a match to smoke a pipe and even lecherously look at a Playboy magazine... Not only was Kisara frozen with terror, but she had to hide the girl behind her and avoid looking at the perverted creature that was, somehow, for some unknown and nature-defying reason, actually blushing and with heart eyes sparkling, but also, disgustingly enough, its nether regions began growing, and its hand had clear malintentions.

With a disgusted squeak, Kisara covered Anne's eyes and dragged her away from there, and towards the small cabin where the rest of the crew were residing, attempting to get some connection to the light-tower, or any port, but they received only radio-silence.

"Argh, gross, I'm all sticky and stinky from the salt water!" Anne whined, tugging on Kisara's sleeve. "Sis, can we take a shower, pretty please?" Silent, the red head walked towards the showers with the little duckling following right behind, and turning on the water, they were deeply surprised to find it was soothingly warm - What a relief. "Alright, Anne, let's shower. Here, take this towel, I'll take the other one."

Being taller, Kisara put all their clothes hanging from the stall, and closing the curtains, she helped the little one wash her hair properly. Though she was rather worried for her brother and the others after the incident outside, she knew they could handle it, if they remain together. Her brother was inventive and witty, and Jotaro was strategic and strong; Together, they can win over any challenge coming their way.

That couldn't be said for the two young girls bathing in content, completely unaware of the massacre that occurred in the radio room - The curtain was loudly pulled to the side, revealing the ugly ape gazing at them with lust. The girl squealed in shock and horror - One of the sailor did say that an orangutan like it has at least ten times the strength of a human - And though Kisara's Stand was defensively strong, it held no offensive power at all. How gross, how disgusting this fucking ape was, as if it had the perverted brain of a human predator. Anne was frightened out of her mind, while Kisara felt her skin crawling, feeling violated.

"Anne, stay behind me and cover up!" the older one ordered, reaching up to snatch the towel from the stall - Only to realise that not only the towels, but the clothes and their lingerie were also missing. "... This little libidinous fuck stole our clothes." she muttered in a low, petrified tone. For someone who was usually a covered up prude, Kisara was now fully exposed to the depravity of a fucking monkey. That's what she gets for showering on a ghost ship. "Wh-What do we do?!" Anne chirped out, her voice vibrating uncomfortably as she hid behind the taller one; It was clear both girls tried to cover themselves with their hands, inching towards the corner of the shower cubicle, struggling to stay out of its large, hairy hand's reach. "I-... I don't know..." in theory, there were many things she could do, but none of them could possibly defeat a being ten times stronger than her, when she had no weapons for herself. One cannot kill a monster with only a shield.

With that damn thing so close to her that she could feel its hot, picked up breathing from excitement on her skin, Kisara thought all hope was lost for them - Yet a miracle did happen when they least expected it, in the form of a guardian angel appearing out of nowhere to rescue them by punching down the ape on its head with the lock of its broken cage. "Seems this ape isn't your ordinary kind of monkey." Jotaro had rescued them, standing tall and protectively in front of them while the enemy had its full attention on him. With Star Platinum punching away the ape, sending it flying into a wall, one of the ceiling fans broke and, as if remote-controlled, stuck into the young man's shoulder, cutting deeply. "This monkey is the Stand user - But where is the Stand?" Jotaro abruptly turned toward the girl, only to realise the compromising position she was in. A beautiful young woman with the long hair of a mermaid princess flowing gracefully around her body, covering her feminine curves, framing the demure, bashful visage, making her look so innocent and inoffensive.

Jotaro tipped down his hat, covering his eyes and looking back at the ape. "Cover yourself and help me out." he ripped away at the drapes, throwing them her way. "JoJo, that thing has an above-average intellect, for a monkey." Kisara quickly ripped the curtain in two, wrapping Anne quickly in one piece, before she did the same for herself. "Come over, you are hurt." though she tried to rip away at the fan, the steel propeller bent on its own, slapping the boy into the face with such brute force that it sent him flying backwards, breaking the metal door.

The ape was jumping up and down in triumph as if it was having its one-man army, making the window shatter; Star Platinum picked all the shard between his fingers, punching at the ape, yet somehow, it magically disappeared into the wall. How could it be? First, it can control not only the metal, but the windows and the machinery of the ship, and now, it can disperse at a molecular level through the walls? "JoJo - I think I know the ape's Stand." Kisara gasped, looking with worry into the boy's eyes, stepping in front of him and reaching out her hand underneath his coat, placing it over the gaping, bleeding wound on his shoulder. "It wasn't that we couldn't see the Stand - It is that it was so obvious, that we couldn't see the forest from the trees." Though Jotaro could feel a refreshing yet slightly tingling sensation overwhelming his wound - But he couldn't relish on the soothing feeling of her hand and the glowing white magic it was doing, nor linger on the beauty before him - Her words lit up the lightbulb of his mind. "The Stand... Was the freighter all along!"

From behind the Japanese boy, long tendrils erupted, menacingly undulating and threatening him. "Look out!" she pushed him out of the way, only to get herself all caught up and tangled in the mess; The only advantage she had over Jotaro was that she couldn't get injured when embraced by her Stand's Power. Up on the deck, the other Crusaders were being sunk in the quicksand of the ship, all of them only now realising the truth about the enemy stand - The freighter itself.

Star Platinum tried to rip away at the plumbing holding her glued against the wall while the orangutan returned, now wearing a captain jacket and hat, smoking its pipe again, and holding a dictionary - It was pointing towards the word 'Strength'. "JoJo, the ape's Stand... It has the Strength tarot card, from the Major arcana." he seemed to realise the girl was under no physical discomfort or pain, despite the tight grip on her body. The damn ape thought he had already long since won, doing a rubiks cube and laughing in their faces - The more Star tore away at the pipes, the more appeared, like a hydra's severed head, spawning twice as more, engulfing even Jotaro and his Stand cruelly. There was an odd feeling in his hand though, and he couldn't pin-point it. It felt like the foreign tingling of a small, soft hand holding his own - But his own hands were touching nothing.

With eyebrows furrowed in drowning confusion, he stole a look at his Stand, and made a huge discover - There was a translucent imagery of a delicate, feminine hand, much like Kisara's own, shining white and holding Star Platinum's own hand. Was this Kisara's Stand? If so, why was she letting only the Stand's hand to be revealed, from the elbow down? And, more importantly, was it her Stand's power engulfing him and Star, that protected him from the unbearable pain from the wrapped metal tendrils which had him rendered stunned to the wall?

Once the Ape finished the cube in record time, it looked up, its wide black eyes sparkling with lewdness as it gazed in deep lust; It was so completely entraced by the gift revealed before him with a lovely ribbon for him to unwrap - Jotaro took the opportunity to pick a button from his jacket and hit the stupid monkey, taunting it with his words. Not only did he hate anyone who dared oppose him in his way to killing Dio and saving his mother from certain death, but he hated perverts, and this ape was the worst out of both sides of the dark spectrum. "That button is not part of your Stand. Huh? You angry? I bet that hurt your pride since you thought you won. No, it's not hurt... Because apes don't have any pride!" that comment made the monkey so full of rage, trembling with the purest kind of anger, that it leapt in full attack mode, ready to tear the young man apart limb from limb. "That's exactly what makes you a fucking ape. Now allow me to show you what being hurt really is like!" his mocking was accompanied by the activation of Star Finger, flicking at the button he previously threw at the monkey and shoot into its skull, which resulted in the deactivation of the tendrils. They were now safe and unharmed. "Yare Yare..." the orangutan was now shaking with fear, backed up into a corner and ripping its shirt off, revealing its belly as a surrendering plea. "I've heard that, when frightened, animals show their stomach to signal their submission. You want my forgiveness?" the monkey nodded, having its hands in a prayer-like way. "Problem is, your actions have long since overstepped the laws of the jungle. You're done for." and with that, the vicious Ora Ora barrage completely defeated the ape.

With the Stand User defeated, the whole ship began twisting up and deforming in ways no ship should ever experience. "Kisara, get Anne and dress up fast. We have to go." he didn't wait for an answer, instead, he pushed the girls in the direction of the showers and helped them gather their clothes to hurry up. "Damn - Jotaro, did you see my bralette anywhere? It's black and lacey, like a crop top." Kisara asked, already half-dressed. "I haven't. Forget it, just hurry up. You'll get another in the city." the boy rushed them again, and thankfully, in no time, both girls were fully dressed and springing to him. "Never mind, I found it." he grumbled, finding the discarded bralette of evident high quality and price, over a pile of rubble in a corner, close to the ape's cage. "I'll return it when we find a hotel." "Thanks a lot, JoJo. You really saved us today. I don't think I can ever thank you enough." Kisara sighed in relief, slumping down on the life boat and leaning her head on her brother's shoulder. "I don't quite know what transpired there, but if it weren't for you guys, we would have been done for." Noriaki smiled gratefully at his friend as he carefully combed through his sister's hair. "Actually, I did nothing. It was all JoJo. Were it not for him... I don't want to imagine what that stupid ape would have done to us." the girl shivered in disgust. "Huh? What do you mean? Did it attack you first?" Polnareff asked in surprised. "Yeah, when we were showering, it was awful!" Anne blurted out, making Kisara snatch her hat away from Nori's hands to hide away her embarrassment. "It was all creepy and trying to touch us! It didn't act like an animal at all!" she continued, deepening Kisara's agony. "When we first went to see it, it took out this magazine with naked girls on it, and it started touching itself and doing weird noises when looking at Big Sis!" "AHHHHHHHHHH SHUT UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP!" Kisara whined unexpectedly loud, her face fully covered by the hat, and hung in shame. "Give me a break, damn it! I don't want to think about that - That damn monkey! I already feel molested, I don't need to remember any further!" she groaned, completely exasperated and done for. "Hold up." Jotaro spoke through the graveyard silence caused by the girl's frustrated outburst. "Did you just say - The monkey was jerking off?" as if on cue, Kisara and Jotaro shared a horrified look, and he grabbed the pretty bralette from inside his coat pocket. "Ohhh, Jotaro, you naughty boy~! Quite the casanova, ain't ya?" Polnareff grinned widely, slinging his arm around the younger one's shoulder.

Jotaro shrugged the Frenchie off of him, and unfolded the roughly crumpled up bra; Somewhere on the inside part of it, a white, creamy substance stained the black lace. "GAH!" both Jotaro and Kisara yelped in complete agony, their skin crawling with disgust and repulsiveness at the mere thought of what had happened to sacrilege the poor piece of clothing. "THROW IT AWAY! BURN IT! GET RID OF IT!" the boy did exactly that, using his Stand to throw the tainted bralette as far away as possible. "I wanna die." Jotaro grumbled in agreement, tipping his hat down and looking away. That was an experience he never wanted to encounter ever again. "Ergh... Anyone want some gum?" the Frenchie grinned awkwardly, hoping to lighten up the gloomy atmosphere. "I want to commit seppuku." Kisara whined softly, feeling her brother comforting her with a hug. "I can braid your hair, if it will make you feel better." the boy offered, trying to keep her mind away from the rather traumatic experience; It didn't take a genius to realise that was her own bralette, which only made the situation worse for her. "Yare Yare..." Jotaro spit his cigarette in the water. "This cig is soaked." "We'll have plenty of time for them to dry, JoJo." Kakyoin reassured him. "And we're lost as sea." Joseph ruffled his hair in disdain. "Again." Avdol hummed, closing his eyes. "Just have to pray we get rescued and taken to Singapore."

Thankfully, that did happen, and a true rescue patrol came for him in record time, taking them to the safety of Singapore... Where Polnareff was almost fined for littering. Joseph proposed to stay at this luxurious grand hotel and relax until they figure out a sure travel path towards Egypt. Truth be told, they deserved a good shelter, proper hygiene and a warm meal after all the trouble at sea they had. Having found out that Anne kepting following them around under the pretext of meeting her dad in about five days, the grandpa offered to pay for her stay there also, and thus, Joseph roomed with Avdol, Noriaki with Jotaro, Kisara was stuck playing the big sis role for Anne - And lucky Frenchie was all by himself.

After they all took their much needed baths, they agreed to go down and have lunch at the overly luxurious restaurant of the hotel, so they could have a light chat - A little mindful of the naive little girl, but also... Not quite. They talked of MMA and sumo, of cuisine around the world and music, and at some point, Avdol offered to play around a bit with his fortune telling gift - Which is when he realised that no one knew a iota about the lady's Stand, from its power, to its appearance or even its name.

"Kisara, have you drawn a card for your Stand yet?" the magician asked. "Yes, a long while ago, in fact. I and Nori developed this ability at a very tender age. My card, like all of you here, is also part of the Major Arcana." just like a magician on the stage, a Tarot card with a rather grotesque imagery appeared between her fingers, and she mysteriously covered one of her eyes, a wicked, dry smirk on her face forming, watching Avdol gasp in shock. He seemed rather uncomfortable, eyeing the card in her grasp. "Th-The Devil? Your Stand is The Devil?" the fortune teller seemed rather disturbed by the notion of having one of the worst cards in the deck as an ally. "Addiction. Powerlessness. Misfortune. Malevolence. Confusion. Obsession. Hedonism. Sabotage. Oppression." Kisara hummed, speaking in a playfully soft voice. "The worst card you can get, don't you think? Surely, all the traits that you might describe a villain with." she chuckled. "Also, the card associated to my zodiac sign - Capricorn." "It's just a card you pick at random. Doubt it matters much, does it?" Polnareff shrugged his shoulders, unknowingly irking Avdol with his words. "In all my career as a fortune teller, I have never encountered a reading where the cards lied. It is not the cards at fault, but the reader's lack of experience and understanding of the situation." the fortune teller explained. "You are very much correct, Avdol, you see - That is because... The Devil is not my Stand's card." her amusement only grew with Avdol's confusion and stark attention. "It is my own." In a fluid and elegant move, Kisara placed the card down on the table, in front of Avdol. "What do you see now, Avdol?" "It's the same card. It's still the Devil." Joseph gruffed, leaning forward. "Was that supposed to be a magic trick?" "It's in reverse." Jotaro pointed out the obvious. "That's right. The Devil, in Reverse." she nodded her head. "If I am The Devil, Upright; then my Stand is The Devil, in Reverse." she smiled playfully. "And what is the opposite of the Devil?" "An Angel." Noriaki looked at his sister. "Marilyn truly is an angel, if I've ever seen one." "Ohhh, really? Then why don't you show us your Stand, huh?" Polnareff huffed with interest. "The Queen of England doesn't take audience from just anyone, does she?" Kisara snarked him with a cheeky chuckle. "She only comes around during special events." "Awe, c'mon..." the Frenchie pouted like a bratty little boy. "Marilyn - As in, Marilyn Monroe?!" Joseph seemed excited to hear the name of the iconic actress. "The one and only, yes. I was debating between Marilyn Monroe and Marlene Dietrich - But I suppose their names are pretty similar anyway." she shrugged passively. "Yes, both wonderful women. Incredibly talented and beautiful." he nodded vigorously. "Hey, sis, wanna go out to see the city?" Anne asked impatiently, tugging on her sleeve. "We can take JoJo with us too." Kisara and Jotaro shared a dubious look - Since when did Anne start liking him so much, when previously, she snarked him with every occasion. "Yeah, sure. I needed to buy some things too." the red head nodded, putting her hat on her head. "You're coming too, aren't you?" she looked at her brother. "If I'm welcomed." he hummed playfully. "Go and do some exploring." Joseph encouraged them. "We'll be figuring out the best route to Egypt. Maybe check out the car cables too, if you're at it." "Sure." Jotaro gruffed, getting up from the table. "Are we all good to go?" Kisara asked, walking towards the exit. "I'll go to the bathroom real quick. Wait me outside." with Kakyoin going towards the stairs, the other three went out to sit on a bench by a palm tree.

They waited in silence, with Jotaro smoking a cig and Anne dangling her legs idly until the red head arrived, and they could begin their stroll through the gorgeous streets of Singapore. It truly was the perfect day for some exploring of a new city, so warm and bright, and the locals were incredibly friendly and welcoming to them. Even the guy from the ice cream stall where Anne went to was nice enough to offer her a free chilled coconut juice, which she's never tried before. Having no money herself, she looked back at the older ones. Jotaro nodded at her, ordering the drink for all four of them. It was the perfect refreshment for such a lovely day.

Kakyoin took out his wallet and paid for all four of them, only for a petty thief to steal it and run away. Jotaro and Kisara watched as he took out his Stand to catch the mugger, cursing him with such vulgar language and beating him to hell. His sister was much too petrified to call out to him, covering the little girl's face, so it fell on Jotaro to stop him. "Kakyoin! I told you to cut it out! What are you, deaf?!" Jotaro was pretty pissed, knocking him away and liberating the poor victim. The red head girl immediately ran by his side and checked for the victim's vital signs, using her Stand power to stabilize his condition. "You're not right in the head. What the hell's gotten into you?" "Honestly... No need to push." Kakyoin patted his jacket from the dust. "The man tried to steal my wallet. He committed a crime." he grabbed the coconut juice from the little girl's hands. "Criminals should be punished - Tell me, am I wrong, Jotaro?" the boy glared deeply at the hostile-acting one, the gears of his mind working rapidly. The man before him was acting in no way like the Kakyoin he knew. "The look is your eyes is awfully hostile, Jotaro-kun. You couldn't possibly be thinking about ending our friendship over a little tussle with a thief, now, would you?"

Kakyoin's monologue was interrupted by a group of little children making a fuss and aweing over a bunch of beatles up on a tree, which made him chuckle. "You're making way too much out of this, JoJo. I'm just having a bad day. I'm so exhausted from the trip, it's just put me in such a bad mood." "Will you shut up already?" Kisara snapped at him. "We've already lost enough time with your fooling around. We've got work to do." she reprimanded him, walking ahead to catch up to Jotaro. She hooked her hand to his arms, inconspicuously getting closer to him privately. "Has he ever acted this way before?" the boy asked. "That's not my brother." her reply was confident. "My brother hates coconut. He always throws away the Bounty coconut chocolate in my room, and blows off the coconut flakes from brownies." "But he did show Hierophant Green." Jotaro pointed out, deep in thought. "Yes, that is true. That's what's confusing me also." she muttered. "My brother would never curse or use such language around me - Or any girl, for the matter." she sighed softly, looking up at the brunet. "And you know what's worse? That my brother is the type to let the bad things done to him just slide; He's not one to hurt others or get revenge. That's me. I was always the one getting revenge on his behalf. He would never do something like that." "Do you think a Stand user is possessing him, then?" Jotaro threw a wild guess. "I... I really don't know." her weak whisper made the boy look at her - She looked so defeated and afraid for her brother, just as much as when she embraced him, upon finding him again. Those two really were close to each other. If anyone could tell something was wrong with the other, it was them.

Anne got in between them two, clinging onto both their arms. She seemed disturbed, looking back at Kakyoin. Yes, no doubt, there was something awfully wrong. To calm her down a little, they went to get some ice-cream on their way towards the cable car, to go to the Singapore Station and book their train tickets to India the next day. Jotaro leaned back on the railing, waiting for the cable car to get by and embark, but Kakyoin - Or whoever it was that impersonated him - Was up to some shenanigans once again; He stole the cherry from the top of Jotaro's ice-cream, and with incredibly strength, pushed him off the railing, falling to his death.

"JoJo!" both Anne and Kisara threw their arms out to grab Jotaro's hand and help him get back up. What the hell was wrong with him? What was going on? What was using Noriaki like a puppet - Or, another theory - What was impersonating Noriaki? "Good one, aye, Jotaro?" Kakyoin's laugh was deranged. "I'm only playin' with you, good ol' Jotaro." he thus disgustingly started tonguing that poor cherry, violating it with saliva, only for it to fall to the ground. "What did you do to my brother?" Kisara hissed, stepping up in front of the imposter. "If there weren't so many people around, I would have long since cut you to pieces, you damn bastard." "Hmm~? Whatever could you mean, lil' sis?" Kakyoin picked her soft cheeks, pulling on them roughly as if they were sweet sakura mochi. "I am your older brother, aren't I? I even have Hierophant Green to prove it, a'ight?" Jotaro slapped his hand away, pulling Kisara protectively behind his back. "You are wrong." she snapped at the culprit. "I am the older sibling, dumbass." "Take care of Anne." Jotaro instructed the girl, clenching his fist. "I'm gonna knock his crooked, possessed ass right into the cable car." the red head wasn't able to even defend from the powerful punch that landed him into cable car with an awfully fractured mandible. "You're off. 'Possessed' isn't quite the word." he got up from the floor. "You still haven't realised my body's been growing this whole time." the cable car's door slid shut, and it took off. "Anne, call Joseph and tell him that someone impersonated Kakyoin. Tell him to look for my brother." Kisara frowned, pondering over the slime that attacked Jotaro. "Stay calm and don't move from here. I'll come back after I find a way to rescue JoJo."

The little girl gulped, terrified, but nodded her head and rushed to call JoJo's grandpa, keeping big sis Kisara in her sight. She watched as she did something so remarkably bizarre that not even Jesus could accomplish - She was running on the air as if she was walking on the ground. With Jotaro jumping through the window of the cable car and climbing up a building, and Kisara running on to him... Nobody really made sense with these guys, did it? Only the weirdest things happen with them. This whole gang was trouble... But that was the fun part, wasn't it? Almost dying so many times was exciting for her - That's why she stuck around for so long.

"What's going on?" Kisara asked, her hands trying to pick the boy's slimed hand, only for him to immediately step back from her. "Did you just walk on the air?" he looked at her weirdly, taking his lighter out. "Sort of. I'll explain later." she waved her hand dismissively. "What's going on?" "You should be here. The slime is devouring away at my finger." he showed the yellow slime on his pinky finger. "Stay away from me, it might transfer to you." "I can't just leave you all alone to fight that thing." she vehemently countered. "Any idea?"

Jotaro lit up his lighter. "This'll hurt like a son of a bitch, but it's time to torch it off." he said, but as soon as the fire touched the slime, it exploded messily all over his hand and spread over towards Kisara, who fended it off by guarding her face with her forearms - But the slime stuck to her bare skin, burning her so bad that it made her yelp, more in confusion than anything. "Wh-What the hell?! Th-This hurts - This actually hurts!" she looked down at the slime on her forearm with terror. "You act like you've never been hurt before." he rose a questioning eyebrow. "That's because I haven't!" she exclaimed. "I have a protective Stand, not a combat-oriented one. I'm shielded away by all kinds of physical factors that could inflict damage on me." she explained briefly her power. "In theory, I've never been hurt by a strike from a Stand to my own Stand or shield. I don't understand how this slime works, but it's corrosive affliction isn't one to take lightly. We have to figure out how to counter it." "How annoying." Jotaro grumbled, looking at the passing cable cars, and upon seeing a kid with an ice-cream. "Can you do the air-walking thing for others too? I'll try to freeze it away." "Of course." she smiled up at him. "Run with no fear. I've got your back, wherever you are." Her wink was enough to reassure him that she would be there to protect him with her Stand, if need be. Jotaro tipped his hat and ran blindly through thin air; It was such a weird feeling, but also, pretty fun - He kinda wants to do that more often, what a drag. Ripping away the door to the cable car, he took the ice cream from the kid after promising to buy him a new one, only for the slime to turn into spikes and dig into his hand even worse, blood splurting out. The trashy fat woman on the seat opposite of him turned into the Enemy Stand User, who covered him with even more of that corrosive slime - Hopefully, Kisara won't be feeling the burning of it it. To think that someone could live so sheltered from pain for eighteen years, that's quite the Stand she had.

Seeing that he was connected to the Temperance user, Jotaro punched away the floor of the car and jumped down into the water underneath them, dragging the idiot down with him - Of course, he can't breath underwater, so he had his guard down for such enough seconds for Star to lock his arms properly, giving him the opportunity to punch the enemy's face, following with a cruel elbow strike in the nose.

Realising that Jotaro already won by default, Kisara made small steps out of her Stand's shielding power so she could jump down progressively, like Mario in the game, until she reached down to them. She heard all the infime information that Temperance had to offer, about The Death, The Empress, The Hanged Man and The Emperor enemies, which are after them. Apparently, The Hanged Man, J. Geil, was the man with two right hands that killed Polnareff's sister, and his power had something to do with mirrors. He's supposedly so strong that Frenchie has no chance against him - But that was as much as this pathetic guy could offer, before attempting to attack Jotaro again.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Kisara's dark, low voice, grumbling into his ear from behind, made Temperance screech like a scared little girl. She was crouched down on the sheen of the water, her blade pressed against his throat, drawing just a few trickles of blood. "Jotaro is a merciful gentleman, you see. He'd have let you go with just a few punches." her voice was threatening as he never expected. "But I'm not like that." with one swift move, Kisara's katana was impaling the man's belly from one end to the other. "Not only did you try to sabotage my brother's reputation, but you endangered everyone in the party - And for that, I cannot forgive you." she slit open his belly. "You are undeserving of a honorable death." the enemy's body fell down into the water, a large pool of blood surfacing instead. Kisara wiped the blood off her blade mechanically in the inside of her elbow, before sheathing it away. "Forgive me. That was unsightly." "He was going to attack again anyway." Jotaro shrugged, taking her hand to get up on the water. "You seem to know your way around weapons." "I told you - My Stand is useless in combat." she chuckled dryly. "So I just do what my Stand can't - Fight." Jotaro scoffed, a little intrigued by that notion. "I'd like to see that one." "I wouldn't." Kisara chuckled, falling in pace with him. "I'm a girl. I hate fighting." she said. "I only do it because I have to." "And why would a woman need to fight, anyway?" JoJo asked. He knew how to fight, how to brawl, because he always got in arguments with people who annoyed him, so naturally, he needed to have the upper hand. Kisara was a quiet woman, and seemed to keep to herself for the most part. She wasn't the type to go out of her way to disturb people, wasn't loud and annoying, nor was she disrespect or nosy. Jotaro couldn't imagine any scenario where the average highschool girl would need to fight. "I wouldn't imagine anyone picking on you, based on how intimidating you look, and on your physique." Kisara's voice was soft and warm like honeyed mead, with a certain bitterness to her smile. "But my brother has always been a small and frail cutiepie who likes artsy stuff and would go out of his way to play with me and my girly stuff, instead of doing boy things like the others." Jotaro grunted in understanding - Of course, the person with the protective Stand would develop such a power out of sheer love for her brother, all because she wanted to protect him with all she had. "Boys would make fun of him, and would bully him all the time. He was such a crybaby... And it really hurt, seeing him so afraid and upset all the time." she sighed, looking up at the cloudy sky. "So I gave up my dancing classes to learn Aiki. I gave up watching Disney Princess movies, to watch combat sports and MMA. I gave up playing dress-up, to work-out. All, to beat up all the jerks who picked on Nori." "A reliable older sister." Jotaro found himself speaking. "You're a strong woman, but women shouldn't have to fight." "Weak, in order to love. Strong, in order to protect. Both, in order to stay by his side." Kisara's smile was serene. "I only ever wanted to be cute and pretty, so that Nori would be proud with a sister like me. But if I have to be strong for him, that is what I'll be."

Jotaro hummed a little, also looking up at the sky. "Women are pretty incredible, huh." his mother wasn't much different. She may not be physically fighting, but she is doing all she can to fight for her family, while his father is touring as a sax player. All alone, to raise a model child turned delinquent. A child who insults her and pushes her affections away, yet she still keeps the routine to kiss him goodbye whenever he goes to school, and kiss him again to welcome him home. She keeps a bright and loving smile on her face all the time, and never expects anything in return. She does everything selflessly, all out of love.

Leaving home, changing continents, moving after a man, learning new habits, a new language, a new culture, and having a child with a man who barely spends time at home, to provide for the family. Even when he got himself in jail, she called gramps and came to rescue him. She always encouraged him to do anything he liked in life, she supported him, and never got angry despite his bratty behaviour. Holly wasn't protecting her son physically, but she was protecting his heart, his happiness, his emotions - And for that, Jotaro truly was grateful. For his mother, he will destroy everything in his path.

"I never asked - Why do you want to kill Dio?" Kisara found herself asking. "My mother is in mortal danger because of him." he scoffed angrily. "Because of him, our Stands manifested. Mum's Stand is too powerful for her, and it's eating away at her life essence. We have to kill him, to save her." he explained the reason for his journey.

"I see." she muttered. "I'm sure your mum is going to be very happy, knowing how much you and Joseph love her." she smiled at him. "That's a woman's greatest happiness. Knowing that the people we love, love us back just as much." Jotaro tipped his hat, smiling. "And you're here to protect Kakyoin." she nodded. "Sorry. I guess I beat him up pretty good when he attacked me; But mum patched him up well enough after getting that flesh bud out." "You could have have easily left him defeated, or killed him for attacking you - Yet you saved him. Thank you. Really, thank you. I don't want to imagine a life without my brother." she truly had the prettiest smile he's ever seen. "Let's keep them safe together, yeah?" surprisingly enough, Jotaro smiled confidently, sticking out his pinky finger for her. "Yeah. Let's do this. Together." hooking her pinky to his own, the two teenagers smiled at each other, sealing a non-verbal vow, and a surprising friendship like none other, blossomed into a most beautiful flower.

With yet another enemy defeat, the night went by at a fast pace, sleeping peacefully and resting properly before going to the Singapore Station to depart for India. It was at the Station that they went separate ways from Anne, not wanting to endanger her for the manieth time thus far. This journey was full of perils and definitely a place for a young girl with no Stand, as she was.

With each day, they were getting closer to their end goal, whichever that was; Each day, they were getting closer to Egypt.

Closer to Dio.

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#the devil's star #jjba imagine #jjba x oc #jjba x reader #jjba #kujo jotaro x kakyoin kisara #kujo jotaro x reader #kujo jotaro imagine #kujo jotaro x oc #kujo jotaro

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jojossillywalk · 2 years ago

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i give up here are stand pathology headcanons with diagrams

mfw people saying that sci fi-ing things sucks all the fun out of them but sci fi is fun for me

ANYWAYS heres my dirt, nothing too gnarly in the diagrams! If I don't clarify some stuff well enough, feel free to ask and I'll clarify as best I can!

Part 1: What Is A Stand?

mikitaka sorta kinda

I can explain.

The base of what we know about Stands in canon, according to Vento Aureo, is that they are a retrovirus of extraterrestrial origin!

What's a retrovirus? A little bundle of proteins that float around trying to hijack the way that DNA replicates itself- basically, it replaces our instruction manual with its own. The meteor and the arrow, for one reason or another, allows these little Stand cells to live on it until they pierce something.

According to Vento Aureo, on getting pierced with the arrow: you either die (in a little nasty way), or get a Stand.

Interesting takeaways on the nature of Stands from Stardust Crusaders, courtesy of Mohammed Avdol:

If one person is pierced with an arrow, their descendants will be impacted, in the form of developing the Stand or the sickness. I don't have enough brain cells to try to bullshit an explanation for that one.

The illness: takes roughly 50 days to be fatal, starts on the back, grows on the body, symptoms will involve a fever that progresses to "other symptoms," followed by a coma and death.

There appears to be some kind of gestation period: Dio was shot with the arrow about 1-2 years before Jotaro and Holly develop the stands (jojo timeline help). Joseph developed Hermit Purple 1 year before Jotaro got Splat.

The "gestation period" can arguably be backed up by Koichi, who survived his own stand by virtue of Crazy Diamond- Echoes first emerges as an egg!

Harming the Stand will harm the user, and Stands can vary highly in range.

They are variable in nature- some can exist entirely independently, even continuing to live within items that the user made. DiU and Stone Ocean have very unique examples of the varying levels of a Stand's independence.

Leading to an interesting point: developing a Stand, as opposed to the illness, will not guarantee that you survive your Stand. Examples include Cheap Trick and Notorious BIG. That said, other Stands will allow you to retain consciousness after death, such as Atom Heart Father (for better or worse).

(Things that I pressed X to Doubt: Avdol comments that Stands revolve around "fighting spirit," but he has been heavily exposed to assassins, who both leave financial paper trails and have body counts. Furthermore, Dio and Enya, individuals going bananas with the arrow, were exclusively looking for recruits for battle. There is mayhaps a smidge of sampling bias.)

Interesting takeaways from the Greenland meteor include:

IN CONTRAST TO THE SICKNESS! The Arrow will kill you a lot faster. We don't have an exact timeframe for how long meteor exposure took, but it seems that at bare minimum, the mineral surveyors, "dying looking like tomato sauce," didn't have a "slow fever, coma, death" presentation.

This is extremely interesting when you take into account that when the first person to be exposed to the virus dies, the Stand illness that shoots down generationally will resolve itself (sometimes leaving a stand: no information on Holly, but Josuke retained Crazy Diamond).

So, someone who gets hit with the Arrow or exposed to the meteor will either gain a Stand or swiftly die- should they have descendants, it's likely that on the death of the Arrow hit, these descendants may develop a Stand (if they were ill to begin with). Either way, there is a decent chance of a Stand remaining.

Other interesting things: Stands can exist entirely independently of users: Anubis and Superfly are good examples.

Back to the question of what a Stand is: I believe that the Stand is not necessarily a virus that infects another extraterrestrial organism, but that it is itself an extraterrestrial that has the option of behaving like a virus.

What do I mean by option?

If there are any fungi and siphonophore fans here, raise hands!

My headcanon is that, in essence, a Stand is an alien that has multiple means of reproduction, and can behave in a manner similar to both fungi and siphonophores. AKA, viral and budding being the primary means.

Viral basically allows the Stand to develop via a host. You are independent strands of proteins that migrate to the optic nerve and swiftly become active in producing proteins to create the building blocks actual Stand- they "stand behind you" because they poke out of the central nervous system. The formation of the stand comes of a mixture of any sensory stimuli to the nervous system while forming, any forming memories (similar to the visuals of dreams), and the general structure of your CNS.

Pros: Saves time, development of sentience is optional, your host does all the work of looking for danger and fighting for your mutual survival.

Cons: you're a stupid space virus who's trying to Build A You out of popsicle sticks and glue so you might kill your host to death. Also, you might trip your host's immune system, causing the Stand sickness again, which kills your host to death.

Visual Symptoms There's VERY few ways to firmly differentiate Stand virus from anything else without biopsy, however! The optic nerve and occipital lobe are the first place to gain these little areas of Stand that are responsible for the ability to process a Stand visually. Unlike your auditory processing, the Stand migrates and is active here- there's no real need for it, as stands can be utilized fine without sight (you don't really need use of sensory organs to have/develop a Stand, those nerves are just where the virus happens to set up camp). A lot of viral cells park and conglomerate here to make "Stand." On SOME occasions, for no real reason that can be understood (seems to be coincidence), the cells will begin just. Creating these deep, deep blue pigment molecules (along with the proteins they're making)- most commonly, they can be found in the choroid coat (it's a red jacket for ur eye that feeds it) and the sclera. Pigment producing viral cells have also presented in the tunica externa of the facial artery (literally just the outer coating of the artery), and the optic artery. By and large, this doesn't really produce any symptoms outside of production of that pigment, but if you were to look at the central nervous system of some people with Stands, you might actually see patches of dark blue where that pigment molecule started being produced.

This in that altered shade of sclera seen in people like Risotto, as well Avdol and Geil's facial markings- initially, it's almost like a prominence or very specific bruising, but the actuality is that the outermost layer of their arteries have deep blue pigment!

Being born with Stand means that you do in fact have more time to start a Stand from scratch, and it takes a little bit for the viral cells to wake up to the fact that you're in the world now. Additionally, they have grown alongside you and your blastula!

Getting stabbed with one or directly exposed via meteor means that you just get an influx of cells all at once, which immediately POG at you, who are so rich in nutrients, and your Stand gets built in overtime! If you don't have Crazy Diamond nearby, this is really bad. Slow and steady building Stands are kinder and gentler on people.

Anyways, budding!

Budding is where a) no option for a host exists and b) enough food. As opposed to spitting out free floating protein, the Stand proteins link up and begin to produce specialized colonies. They can look like whatever they damn well please, but often form sensory organs first in the interest of blending in with whatever they will be Hash Tag Coexisting with. After "mapping" out their form using buds that make this weird cartilaginous blueprint, they Build Dude. T End result is obligated to be sentient! There's no real difference between a bud Stand who mimicked a human person and a human person: for my John Carpenter's Thing fans, imagine that the Thing was like. Forced to not plagiarize, do its own work instead of assimilating, and just eat enough to formulate its own guy cells from scratch. Mikitaka is an example- very little functional difference between the end result of virus or budding, except that he and his Stand are basically one and the same. Took him a while to grow, but y'know. He lives in Morioh. He's a normal high schooler, just sprouted a little differently. Pros: You exist in space, you can do whatever you want. Get a job, carry ice cream in your pockets, the world is your damn oyster. The Stand virus also can't do anything to you. Additionally, you can pretty much digest anything. Cons: Takes a really long time, takes a lot of energy, hence the ability to basically digest anything. The construction of a full working nervous system from scratch takes for fucking ever.

Abilities

The variation in their abilities is a mixture of their intake of stimuli (as they are parked in the nervous system) and literally anything that a human brain can conceive as a thing that makes us go "WHOA!" They're intended to be defensive measures, but as mentioned, they are stupid virus aliens, so they sort of just throw things at the wall and some of it sticks.

Some people can go their entire lives without knowing that they have stands, because the abilities are just weird and specific. Tonio only unlocked his after extensive journeys as a chef. What do you want from the guy. Some Stands don't even start building for some reason, so they just chill out in there.

ANYWAYS! tldr, Stands are a siphonophore-virus-aliens like John Carpenter's Thing that are trying to live, just like you and me :)

Why can some of them stop time?

its jojo leave me alone passage of time is stimuli i guess the alien cell didnt like it. why can no one but stand users see them?? genuinely no clue.

#jjba #jojo's bizarre adventure

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mai-atsumi · 2 years ago

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Introduction/ Requests (Open)

I am Mai, a Jojo and One Piece fanfiction writer, and I'm here to tell you what to expect from my work: 1. Inconsistency- I don't usually have a defined post schedule

2. I don't specialize in angst, and Im bad at it, but I am much better at writing fluff and smut

3. I have favourite characters, and I write about them more often

✖= Smut

❤= Fluff

★= Angst

☀= Platonic

✓=Family

☎=Sensitive content

Warnings that apply will be in the beginning notes

Rules:

When it comes to requesting your favourite character, you have to know what is and isn't okay

NSFW/SMUT: Only characters over 17 can be requested for NSFW. This is because if I were to write explicit content with characters under the age of 17 that would be counted as writing bout' children and I'm not cool with that

➨ Exceptions are kissing and making out for some characters (Characters that are 14 or younger obviously won't be making out with anyone)

I also write character x character!!!

Things I refuse to write:

Scat play (You are not 5)

Pedophilia

Zoophilia (And I mean a full-on ass animal like a squirrel, that's actually nasty)

There's probably more, but I don't really want to know more than I already do

Examples of things I can and will write:

Non-Con/Rape (Depends)

Stalking

Human Experimentation

Ect.

Things I can do:

One Shots

Head Canons

Short stories

ect

Requests (Open):

When giving me a request, I would appreciate it if you got specific

As the reader here's what you can request:

Reader Pronouns: Gender Neutral Pronouns, Feminine Pronounds, Masculine Pronouns. (I do not use Neo or custom pronouns)

Reader's Gender: Female, Male, TransFem, TransMasc, Gender Neutral/ Non-Binary

You can also ask for a gender-swapped character (Ex: Female Joseph Joestar, Male Nami)

Relationship: You can request to have a history with your requested character. (Ex: Avdol's girlfriend, Smokey's best friend, Bruno's older sister, Luffy's sister, Smoker's rival, ect)

Plot: If you have a specific prompt or idea, like the plot or storyline please say so. (Ex: Proscuttio and Pesci go out on a mission with Reader to kill a politician who is hosting a ball and Pesci and Proscuitto fight over who gets to dance with Reader) (Ex. Reader is sick and Lisa Lisa is taking care of her,) (Ex. Ace meets an old crewmember from the spade pirates and falls in love)

Writing style: Poetry, Novel, etc

Multiple characters

Alternate Timeline/universe: The Twilight thing where everyone is either alpha, beta, or omega, Modern timeline, School Au, Ect.

Example of a request:

Cherryberrylady: Heyyy Mai! (>_<) Can you write an Annasui x Reader? Like, I really want it to be like, Annasui is stalking Reader a little, like putting cameras in her house type stalking, and in her car too maybe. and like Reader is going home and Anasui is watching them thru the cameras and Annasui like, watches them masturbate..? and he hears them moaning his name. (づ￣ ³￣)づ Its okay if you don't want to tho!!! Also maybe end it where Annasui talks to Reader the next day and asks them out. ( ﾟヮﾟ) Also!! when it comes to the reader can you make their pronouns gender-neutral?

Mai-Atsumi: Of course, and your request was so greatly written- Only the best of the best could've made such a perfect request... Or

Numberoneacecocksucker: Hey Mai, can I ask for a pre-timeskip Ace x reader where the reader is a member of the Whitebeard Pirates as Thatch's younger sister and Thatch doesn't want Ace to go after his sister but Marco also likes reader to? Make sure its Female gender/pronouns please! Mai-Atsumi: Sure thing! Ill get to it right now! Right after I finish my other request!

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sepyana · 2 years ago

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Jjba Diamond is Unbreakable Ep. 8-16 Thoughts

Ep. 8-9

Yukako has so many issues god bless

I've taken a liking to her design. Her color scheme goes together well, her hair has a lot of character and I do like the rose emblem on her outfit.

Her stand, Love Deluxe, plays the prehensile hair trope straight, other than her ability to control her hair even when it is not attached to her scalp. I like the name but I find this type of stand boring to be honest.

I'm not really interested in Yukako as a character, unless she gets something more later on. The funniest thing they can do is pair her and Koichi together. "Me and my girl don't argue, she tells me to shup up and I do" and such.

Josuke and Okuyasu were nice this episode. We learn that Crazy Diamond can't bring back anything The Hand deletes. Just goes to show how opposite their powers are.

Koichi is not really my cup of tea. I appreciate him being part of the group but solo episodes with him don't really interest me. Plus his voice is incredibly grating in both sub and dub. It's interesting that he set up that rock so that Yukako wouldn't die, you gotta be really confident that you'll win if you are worrying about the safety of your opponent.

Hey, Koichi with the new hair kinda looks like... No I shan't say it.

Let's talk about Echoes. My boy. My lil man. Look at his lil smile :) My favourite stand from part 4 so far. It seems to emote on its own sometimes, like Star Platinum who smiles every time it gets a chance to beat someone up. I like it when stands emote on their own. The fanworks do this a lot but jjba itself rarely does it. Which is a shame.

Ep. 10

This is just 20 minutes of Okuyasu having nice things happen to him and I think that's just great. If I had so say my one gripe (and be a killjoy), it would be that it doesn't tell us much about Okuyasu and Josuke that we don't already know. The best thing about filler is that it gives us characterization and I don't think this episode has enough of that.

Okuyasu and Josuke fighting reminded me of the Death 13 episode except Polnareff was infinitely more stubborn

Also this is a great time to just give the VAs the biggest shout out cuz wow I love them. Especially Okuyasu I love the way he says Josuke. It brings me joy. They are perfect fits for the characters they are playing. I can hear Tonio's accent but I know fuck all about Japanese so It might be horrible, not my problem tho.

Ep 11 - 12

I think Tomoko is one of my favourite female Jojo characters so far. The bar is on the ground, but, you know. Take what you can get.

I don't get why they added that scene with Josuke at the start. It doesn't really add anything.

I think the funniest thing in episode 11 is Koichi and Okuyasu just going through it and the Jojos not giving a shit. I hate the Joestars so much it's unreal. It did struck me as a bit weird. It's not at all weird for Jotaro (Have you seen the stardust crusaders? They told Polnareff they lied about Avdol's death to him and then they had the audacity to go "I didn't think you'd be this hurt"), It does feel a bit off for Josuke though.

Jotaro smiling as he says Jospeh could die is amazing. Of course he would.

I didn't think about what Red Hor Chili Pepper's stand user would look like but I am definitely not dissapointed in Akira. Personality wise he is insanely boring but I do like his design.

Okuyasu looking at his own hand as he thanks Koichi was a nice touch.

I like how they handled Joseph. Obviously Josuke is not gonna be amazed to see him but It wouldn't go with his personality if he was antagonistic either.

Ep 13

I don't like how different the japanese VA of Joseph sounds when he is yelling. English VA doesn't have this issue but it's also was the weakest of the sdc cast imo. No winning with this one.

Ep 14 - 15

The first episode is just set up. It does that job pretty well though. Really makes Rohan seem insane. I mean, he *is*.

Rohan relating everything to art and writing isn't even that off from how most artists think tbh. Writers will see a documentary about the most disturbing shit they have ever seen and they will go "That will make my writing about this part more accurate".

And Rohan'a advice is actually pretty good. Like, draw with references. Draw from reality. Base your characters on people who you know, instead of like, just taking from your favourite artisans. Anyways,

Rohan's stand is called the Heaven's Door. Firstly, It's a really cute stand. Secondly, this thing is busted. It'd be one thing if looking at a draft was the only way for it to work but touching you with his stand also works. And he can knock someone unconcious when unfurling them. Add on that the insane speed he has for no reason and honestly we should just be glad this guy isn't a villain. He is just weird and offputting.

I fucking love episode 15. The pay off is amazing. I love that Okuyasu and Josuke notice something small like a cut on his hand and immediately help him. I love that Rohan opens Josuke's eyes by insulting his hair. And then he just. keeps. going.

Josuke being literary so blinded by rage that he doesn't see the draft? Amazing. He absolutely destroyed that place. And threw a fucking chair at Okuyasu and Koichi. This show is pretty funny when it wants to be.

The story of his hair was really sweet. The guy helping them seems to be a student like the current day Josuke too.

Ep 16

The art style for this episode looks different from normal and I have no idea why. The style is ussually pretty consistent. You can see the gums in their teeth it's strange.

Jotaro gets a slight outfit change. I like the colors and the tilted belts. I'm not sure on the new jacket. I liked that they used the collar of his shirt to give the same vibe as his part 3 outfit insead of just giving him a jacket exactly like his old one. His new jacket is a bit dissapointing. I like dolphins. I'm not sure what they were trying to do with the triangle and the sun. Overall, I like the older one just a bit more. I would love it if he kept changing outfits like this tho.

It's something that Jotaro can't seem to seperate Star Platinum's time stop ability from Dio. Like, that's Star Platinum's power.

As funny as seeing Jotaro get his ass beat by a Twitch looking ass rat is, It's also shows what I like about stands. I know Jotaro is holding back here, but that doesn't change the fact that this is a bad machup for him. So you don't need to nerf him in ordert to create conflict. Stands are good against combatting power creep, is what I'm saying.

Love Crazy Diamond popping up out of nowhere just to look sad. Don't look at me with them big ol' eyes.

Ep. 17

I think one thing part 4 is good at is the character dynamics. Rohan and Koichi was fun to watch. Rohan grinning at Koichi getting flustered was great. Reimi being really friendly with Rohan cuz she knew him when he was a kid is a nice bit of writing.

I made a joke post about where Kak went after death, a few people mentioned how ghosts were real and he could be like Reimi. Now I know what they are talking about.

Reimi has a nice design. Especially the choker with the hands holding on it. Speaking of hands

I know I shouldn't be laughing at the guy whose only trait so far is that he kills young girls to date their hands to satisfy his stupid fetish or something but

what even is that music. Why did they make it like that.

To close this off, I am currently on vacation with little internet access. It's a rural area so there isn't much to do. I've been spending my time writing these, slowly. Gonna take a hot minute to finish this part.

I've been also wondering if I should watch Stone Ocean before Golden Wind and get the Jotaro story over with. I'll decide that later, I dunno.

#sepya watches jjba #↪ posts

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cheemers-writing-archive · 2 years ago

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Nothing Else Like It: Chapter 15

Hi! It's almost been a full year since I've updated this, huh? I would love to say that in typical fanfic writer fashion, something insanely dramatic happened to prevent this chapter, but that is not the case. I just felt like I couldn't write. I do think the fact that I almost flunked out of college TWICE before I updated this fic is connected somehow. Anyway, I hope this chapter is worth the wait!

Oh, one more thing! This is a crossover with my other fic, Crusader of Life 3! If you wanna see all of this from Emily and the others' perspective, I'd suggest you read it! The two books before it are kinda bad in my opinion, so I wouldn't suggest reading those first, but you can if you want I guess.

“Hey! Kai! Stop swinging that around!”

“But Grandad, I’m being careful!”

“You’re swinging around a mace! Just because Dedun can form its hands into anything you can carry doesn’t mean you should wield a weapon right now! We’re in a submarine!”

Kai sighed, calling Dedun back. He walked towards the couch, about to lay down on it, before he saw Jotaro sitting there. He gave his brother a glare before sitting on the chair next to the couch.

“I kind of miss being sleepy all the time,” Kai sighed. “Now that I’m not sick anymore, my body has no reason to let me rest. But I guess it makes me less of a burden, huh, Jotaro?” The last sentence was said louder than the others, with Kai turning his head towards his brother.

Jotaro huffed. “Okay fine, maybe I was a little harsher than I should’ve been-”

“A little?”

“But you have your Stand now, so what’s the big deal?” Jotaro was sitting straight up now.

“The deal is that you called me a burden!” Kai snapped. Without warning, Dedun’s fist materialized, swinging at Jotaro. Star Platinum’s hand materialized shortly after that, catching the fist before it hit its user.

Jotaro stared at the caught fist for a short while before turning his head back to his brother, exclaiming, “What the hell, Kai?” However, he could see that Kai was stricken with terror for a few moments before hardening his face as best as he could.

“Serves you right,” Kai said, voice wavering. He called Dedun back, then ran to the restroom.

Jotaro sighed. “He needs better control of his Stand,” he muttered. “Avdol, since you’re back, why don’t you help?”

“Don’t just brush off what happened, Jotaro!” Kakyoin said. “Calling him a burden, even if it was sort of true, was completely unwarranted. Kai’s not completely in the right, either, but you should at least try to patch things up, since this was kind of your fault in the first place.”

“Kai’s overreacting.” Jotaro shrugged his shoulders. “I’ve said worse things before and he’s gotten over it.”

“That doesn’t make this okay,” Joseph said. “You hurt your brother’s feelings. I’m not going to force you to apologize like before, but that’s because I want you to mean it when you do.”

“I’ll go make sure Kai’s not too shaken up by Dedun acting on its own,” Avdol said. “Mr. Joestar, can you pilot the submarine while I’m gone?” Joseph nodded, and Avdol went to the restroom, with Kakyoin following close behind.

“Kai?” Kakyoin lightly knocked on the door. “Kai, are you in there?”

There was no answer.

“Look, if you don’t want Avdol and I to come in, say so now, okay?” Kakyoin continued. “I’m not hearing anything from your side, and that worries me.”

Still no answer. Kakyoin pressed his ear to the door, and there wasn’t even muffled sobs coming from the other side.

“Alright, I’m opening the door now,” Kakyoin said. He turned the knob, and gasped when the door opened completely. Kai wasn’t there.

“Everyone!” Avdol shouted. “Kai’s missing!”

“Missing?” Polnareff asked. “How? We’re in a submarine!”

“He’s not in the submarine,” Kakyoin said. “We don’t know how he got out, or whether he was forced out by an enemy, but he did!”

Jotaro stood up. “Well, are we going to find him or not?”

Suddenly, Joseph let out a pained scream. The others turned to him, seeing that the steering wheel had morphed into a sword and sliced Joseph’s artificial hand off. The sword then batted the metal fingers straight into Joseph’s neck, causing him to pass out.

“Before we find Kai, I think we’ll have to deal with the enemy at hand,” Avdol said to the others. “It seems we have another Stand user attacking us.”

***

Just moments before, Kai slammed the bathroom door, then bent over the counter, breathing heavily. “What was that?” he asked Dedun, who materialized right beside the boy. “Why did you attack Jojo?”

“You were thinking that you wanted to punch him, so I simply did as you ordered me to,” Dedun bowed.

“No, I… I didn’t actually want to punch him!” Kai dug his fingers into his scalp. “This is bad. If every thought I have turns into an order for you, who knows what’ll happen? Someone I love could be injured, or killed!”

“Terrifying thought, is it?” a woman’s voice asked. Kai turned around to see a woman behind him. She had fair skin, dark purple hair, and sunglasses over her eyes. “To have the power to kill, right at your fingertips?”

“Who are you?” Kai demanded. Dedun stepped in front of his user.

“Oh, I’m nobody important,” the woman said with a smooth voice. “However, you’re very important, which is exactly why I’m here.”

Before he could react, the ground beneath Kai opened up, making him fall onto concrete. While he was regaining his footing, the woman jumped in with him, then closed up the sky. “Ah, good, I was afraid you’d have a version of you in this world,” she said.

“What did you do to me?” Kai asked. “Where am I?”

“You’re in another world,” the woman answered. “My name is Maya Valentine, and I dragged you here with my Stand, D4C.”

“What does that stand for?”

“It doesn’t really stand for anything,” she shrugged, “but that’s not the point. I dragged you here because I need you to take someone out for me.”

“Like Hell I will,” Kai said. “I won’t kill somebody just because someone else tells me to.”

“Fine,” Maya shrugged. “I guess you don’t want to go back to your world, then.” She started to walk away.

“Wait!” Kai exclaimed. Maya stopped and turned around.

“Who do I need to kill?”

Maya’s mouth formed into a smile, and she took off her glasses. “There’s a girl who’s the daughter of a mafia boss. Her name is Gionna Giovanna.” Maya handed a picture to Kai, a portrait of a girl with blonde hair and green eyes. “If she’s killed, her father’s spirit will be broken, and his hold on the underground will be loosened.”

“Do you have any idea of where I can find her?”

“She should be asleep right now,” Maya said. “In fact, I took away the hard part of finding her for you. The window to her bedroom should be right there.” She pointed to a window just a few yards away. “Just go in, kill her, and go out. If you can do that, I’ll send you back home.”

Kai gulped as he walked over to the window. If I can just make it sound like I killed her, I can go back home without that on my conscience, he thought to himself. Luckily for him, the window was open, so he jumped through, landing on the creaky floorboards. In the room were two beds on either side. Kai looked to one side, where there was a girl with red hair about the same age as him. He turned to the other side, expecting to see the girl in the picture, but instead there was nothing.

“Who are you?”

Kai gasped, quickly turning around. The girl on the other side was sitting upright in bed. She looked past Kai and at the empty bed behind him.

“What did you do to Gionna?”

“Wait, wait! I promise I didn’t do anything to her!” Kai put open hands in front of him.

“But you were planning to do something to Gionna if she was here,” the girl said. Kai was suddenly lifted up into the air, being violently thrown out of the window. When he regained his footing after rolling on the ground for a moment, he saw the girl go out after him, flying in the air. “Once I’m done with you, I’ll go find her.”

You don’t understand! I was only pretending to kill her! Kai wanted to shout. However, the threat of Maya being nearby kept his mouth shut. The only thing he could do was keep up the act in front of her. He summoned Dedun, transforming its hand into a gun.

“So you do have a Stand,” the girl said. She revealed her own, a golden, human-like figure, with flowing hair that merged with the head.

Kai aimed the gun at the girl’s shoulder, then shot it. However, before it hit her, the bullet magically stopped in front of her, falling to the ground.

So, she can stop objects in midair with her ability, Kai thought. I’m starting to get a clearer idea of what her Stand is capable of.

Just a few moments after Kai shot his gun, the girl zoomed towards him. With the way she was moving, Kai would never be able to get a clean shot to the shoulder, so he had Dedun change the gun into a knife. The girl noticed this, pulling up before Kai could do anything. While she was in the air, her eyes widened while she looked down at something.

“Gionna!” the girl shouted. “Wake the others up! I need some backup!”

Kai gulped. If I don’t tell her what’s really going on soon, I might never get the chance.

The girl was flying down to Kai again. He looked down to the ground, seeing Gionna running to the window. He started to run towards Gionna, hoping that Maya would believe he was making a mistake of forgetting about the girl in the air. Sure enough, the girl grabbed Kai by his arms, lifting him up into the air.

“Did you seriously forget about me?” the girl asked. “I thought you’d be harder to deal with.”

“I didn’t,” Kai said. “I need to tell you something out of earshot of the girl who’s watching me.”

The girl stopped, suspending the two of them in the air.

“Don’t stop flying yet,” Kai whispered. “I don’t know how good she is at picking up context clues.”

The girl continued flying, and while she did, Kai explained who he was and how he was put into this predicament.

“Is Dedun your Stand?” the girl asked.

Kai nodded.

“Why didn’t you just explain this to me before I started fighting?”

“I didn’t know if Maya was watching me, and I didn’t want to give away my plans.”

The girl nodded, then asked one more question. “What’s your name?”

“Kai Kujo.”

The girl almost stopped again, but kept her composure and continued flying. “Kujo?”

“You know that name?”

“Yeah. My dad’s friend has the same last name.”

Kai narrowed his eyes. “What did you say your name was, again?”

“Emily Kakyoin.”

“Your dad wouldn’t happen to have the name Noriaki, would he?”

Emily gasped. “How did you know?”

Kai laughed. “I’m dating Noriaki right now! And if my hunch is correct, your dad’s friend is my brother, Jotaro.”

Emily laughed, as well, but it quickly died down. “We’re going pretty far from the house,” she said. “I think we need a plan for bringing you back so we can talk more. There are still things I need to know.”

“What if you just knocked me out?” Kai asked. “It’s a good way to get me inside your home without Maya thinking that I’ve teamed up with you.”

Emily tilted her head. “Are you sure?”

Kai shrugged. “I’ve passed out plenty of times before.”

Emily let out a small laugh. “You’re weird, you know that?” she said. Before Kai could respond, Emily threw him down.

While he was falling, Kai laughed, too. “You’re just as weird as me,” he said to himself, before he hit the ground and lost consciousness.

Meanwhile, unknown to anyone else, Maya was watching the scene unfold from an area inside of her Stand. “I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and say that you’re gaining the enemies’ trust, Kai,” she said to herself. “However, you aren’t getting back to your world unless you give me the head of Gionna Giovanna.”

***

A muffled voice. As Kai regained consciousness, he heard a muffled voice. He slowly opened his eyes, the light blinding him before he adjusted to it. As he continued waking up, the voice that was talking cleared up. Kai noticed that it sounded like Emily, but he still couldn’t make out what she was saying. It sounded like she was speaking in a different language.

He tried to move from his spot, but he was paralyzed. No, that wasn’t right. He could move very slightly, but if he tried moving any more, the bindings all around his body would restrict him. Kai also apparently made a small noise, because all four heads suddenly turned to him. Besides Emily, there was a boy with black hair, a boy with brown hair, and a person with dark purple hair.

Emily walked around to the back of the chair Kai was sitting in. “How long have you been awake?” she asked as she undid the rope that held him down.

“Not that long,” Kai said. Once his restraints were lifted, he stood up and stretched his arms out. “What’s everyone’s names?”

The other three furrowed their eyebrows and tilted their heads.

“Oh, giusto!” Emily said. “Ragazzi, non capite il giapponese. Kai sta chiedendo i vostri nomi.”

The others’ confused looks went away.

“Lucio,” the black-haired boy said.

“Marco,” the brown-haired boy said.

“Nadia,” the purple-haired person said.

“Pleased to meet you all.” Kai stood up from his chair and bowed. “I’m sorry about causing you worry with Gionna.”

Emily translated once again for everyone else. Nadia said something that Kai didn’t understand.

“They’re saying not to worry about it,” Emily told Kai. “You did what you had to do.”

Kai looked back up, letting his muscles relax. Once he sat back down, everyone else started to talk to each other, leaving Kai unable to communicate with anyone else. I at least wish I could talk with Emily more, he thought to himself.

After a little while, Emily turned back to Kai. “So, right now, our plan is to, well, come up with one between Nadia, Marco, Lucio, and I, then tell you about it to see if you have any additions to make. Also, Lucio said that if you wanted a more comfy place to hang out, you could go to his room and rest there.”

“Thanks,” Kai said, and left for the hallway. Once he started to leave, the others started talking. While he was walking down the hall, looking at the rooms, he saw Gionna sleeping in her bed. She’s alone right now, he thought to himself. If I want to get back home as quickly as possible, now would be the perfect time. His pace slowed a bit as he found himself lost in thought, before shaking his head and putting his focus back on finding Lucio’s room. I’m not going to kill someone who doesn’t deserve it, even if that means I’ll never go home.

Luckily for Kai, everyone had labels on their room, and he had paid attention in English class enough to read the romanized alphabet. He read the letters; M-A-R-C-O, L-U-C-I-O, N-A-D-I-A. Marco, Lucio, and Nadia. Kai entered Lucio’s room, and laid down on the bed. “This is the worst,” he mumbled.

“If you want it to end, you have the power to make it end right now,” Maya’s voice said. Kai jolted up, seeing Maya close up the sky that she likely just opened to arrive. “Gionna’s alone right now.”

“Maya!” Kai exclaimed.

“Look, thinking of a plan to trick me into thinking that you’ve killed Gionna won’t work, because I can spy on you whenever I want,” Maya said. “If you want to get back to your world, you’ll have to take a life. Whether that happens or not depends on you.”

Once Maya was done talking, footsteps started to make their way down the hall. “Well, it looks like I have to go,” Maya continued. “If you ever decide to actually take Gionna’s life, I’ll support you however I can. See you soon!”

And just like that, Maya opened up the ground and left, leaving no sign she was ever there in the first place.

Suddenly, a knock came from the other side of the door. “Kai?” Emily’s voice said. “Are you in there?”

“Huh? Yeah, I’m here,” Kai said, heart still beating. “You can come in.”

Emily opened up the door, and her eyebrows immediately furrowed. “Is everything okay?”

Do I really look that freaked out? “Oh, yeah, I’m fine.” Kai said, forcing himself to smile. “I just saw a bug and it freaked me out a bit.”

“Oh, yuck,” Emily laughed. “Well, the rest of us came up with a plan, if you’d like to hear about it.” She nudged her head towards the door, beckoning for Kai to follow her. Kai got up from the bed and walked behind Emily as she started talking.

I can’t give anything away, Kai thought to himself. I have to look like I haven’t seen Maya yet. If they know Maya can spy on me whenever, it’ll put all of us at a disadvantage. I’ll have to act like their plan will work, and come up with something on my own.

“So, right now, our plan is to create some fake blood, and spill it all over Gionna’s bed,” Emily said. “We’ll probably spill some on you, too, so that Maya can be more convinced you killed her. How good are you with acting?”

“I’m… decent?”

“Do you think you can act shell-shocked?”

“I guess so.”

“Good.” Emily smiled. “Once we get the preparations ready, you go find Maya and tell her that you killed Gionna. Make sure to act like you’re utterly terrified with what you did, so she’ll believe you easier.”

Kai nodded. “How long do you think preparations will take?”

“Oh, not that long. I’d say just long enough for me to ask all the questions I’m dying to ask.”

Kai let out a laugh. “You’re not the only one who’ll be asking, you know.”

“Well, since you’re on board with this idea, I’ll tell the others.” Emily patted Kai on the back, then stood up and turned to everyone else, once again speaking in what Kai thought was Italian. While she was talking, Kai thought of ways to defeat Maya on his own. I have to be able to use Maya’s ability to appear anywhere to my advantage, but how? She can spy on me whenever, and is probably watching me right now. I can’t let her know I’m figuring something out on my own.

Kai decided to zone back in just as Nadia and Lucio were leaving. Lucio was waving a hand with a smile on his face, and Emily was rolling her eyes with the same smile.

“You seem to be really good friends with… Lucio, I think his name is,” Kai said once they left.

Emily scoffed. “Oh, please, he annoys me to no end.” She sat back down, and eagerly turned to Kai. “Enough about me, though. You’re from another world. That’s so much more interesting than my life.”

And from there, the two shared lots of different parts of their life. Kai learned that in this world, there was a woman named Lily who married Kakyoin, and the two of them had Emily. She told Kai about Morioh and a man named Yoshikage Kira, about how he brutally murdered Lily. She told him about Daichi, and about Giorno Giovanna, and about how she got into this mess in the first place.

While the two were talking, Kai was thinking through his plan. If I can attack while others are present, they can attack Maya, too. I don’t know what everyone’s Stands do, but I at least know that Emily can restrain her. It just might be what I need to bargain my way back to my world.

Sometime during their chat, Kai noticed Nadia and Gionna uncovering a rug and opening a trapdoor on the floor. So that’s where she is, he thought.

“Huh,” Emily said. “That’s something new.”

Kai tilted his head.

“I’m fairly new here,” Emily continued, “so I don’t know about everything they have. I had no clue there was a trapdoor there.”

After some time, Nadia came back out by themself, then covered the trapdoor up with the rug again. They said something in Italian, and Emily nodded.

“We’re almost ready,” she told Kai.

“Well, if we don’t get another chance, I just want to say that it was nice meeting you,” Kai said. “I wish I could’ve met you in different circumstances.”

“Same here.” Just as Emily finished her sentence, Lucio came up and spoke to Emily. She stood up, telling Kai that they were ready. He stood up with her, and the two walked back to Gionna’s room with Lucio. When they got there, Marco flicked a dark red liquid all over Kai.

“How do I look?” Kai asked Emily.

“Like a murderer,” Emily said, “but not a regretful murderer.”

“Oh! Right,” Kai said. He changed his expression, making his eyes go wide, looking at the ground.

“Oh, wow, that’s amazing!” Emily laughed. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you actually killed her.”

“I guess we’re ready, then,” Kai sighed, shaking his body. “Let’s hope this works.” And let’s hope I can keep up this act whenever I come back.

As everyone was walking to their rooms, Kai left the house, walking a ways away from it. Once he was far enough away, Maya opened up the sky and landed on the ground.

“I see you didn’t let your friends know about me,” she said. “I’m guessing you’re ready to kill?”

Kai nodded, keeping his expression the same. “I’m ready.”

“Good!” Maya chirped. “I’ll help you however I can, then.”

And that’s going to be your downfall, Kai thought to himself. Maya fell through the ground again, and Kai started slowly walking back. Once he got back, he opened and closed the front door louder than usual, hoping to alert the others. Sure enough, Emily and Marco appeared from the hall entrance.

“It didn’t work?” Emily asked.

Kai slowly shook his head. “There’s only one other thing I can do in this situation,” he said, then summoned Dedun. The Stand’s hand formed into a ball and chain, then it slammed into the floor right under the rug, breaking the trapdoor. Kai quickly jumped down the chute and ran away from Walking on Sunshine’s range before Emily realized what was happening.

Making his way into the basement, Kai realized why Nadia was okay with him seeing the secret trapdoor. To call the place a labyrinth wouldn’t be an exaggeration. Still, he couldn’t hesitate in going every which way to look for Gionna, because to stay still would be worse than getting lost.

“Turn left here,” Maya’s voice said. It sounded like she was speaking from Kai’s back. Startled, Kai stopped running and put a hand on his back, feeling a small hole in his clothes.

“I can place my portals anywhere I want, and I don’t necessarily have to travel between them if I don’t want to,” Maya continued. “I know where Gionna is being hidden, and so I’ll guide you there. Turn left here.”

Kai did as he was told, steering himself left. He kept running in the same direction before Maya said, “Turn right.” Kai obeyed, and turned right. He continued like this, turning when Maya said so, until he saw Emily, Marco, and Nadia running from the other side. Nadia said something in a panic, then the three turned into a corridor.

“I’m sure you don’t need me anymore, huh?” Maya said, then went silent. Kai turned where the others did, and saw them surrounding Gionna.

“Give up, Kai!” Emily shouted. “You’re outnumbered!”

“He may be outnumbered right now, but I can change that,” Maya’s voice said. A portal opened right above the three, and she suddenly grabbed Nadia, pulling them up into the portal and closing it.

After Nadia disappeared, Kai started slowly approaching Emily and Marco. He summoned Dedun, forming his hand into a sword. Emily stood right in front of Gionna, screaming, “Don’t do it!”

“What choice do I have?” Kai screamed back. “I can’t stay here forever!”

“I don’t want to kill you!” Tears started to form in Emily’s eyes. “Don’t make me kill you!”

Kai didn’t answer, instead continuing to approach. He could see an aura around Marco, signaling that he summoned his Stand, and suddenly, Kai ran into an invisible wall. He blinked a few times, trying to get a hold of his surroundings. Once he did, he slowly reached his hands out, trying to understand what happened. Sure enough, his hands pressed against that same wall, but he realized that there was a light pink tint to it.

Once he had a feel for what was happening, he brought a plan into action. He had Dedun’s sword morph into a ball and chain again, swinging it into the shield that blocked him. Each time, the ball made a loud boom, threatening to break the barrier. Behind the others watching carefully, Kai saw Maya sneak up behind Marco.

Maya said something in Italian, and Marco jumped. Suddenly, Kai’s attacks made a crack in the barrier. However, his plan was never to break the wall. His plan was to lure Maya out from hiding.

“Now’s your chance!” Kai shouted. “Restrain her!”

Emily stood still for a moment, but quickly summoned Sunshine and lifted Maya up and away from the portal she made before she could escape.

“You…” Maya growled, scowling at Kai. “You tricked me!”

“And you used me to do your dirty work,” Kai said. “I’d say we’re even now.”

Emily, still holding Maya in the air, immediately became more relaxed. She spoke to Marco, who spoke back. The two kept talking, until Marco sighed, saying one more thing. Suddenly, the light pink wall in front of Kai disappeared, and he calmly walked forward, calling back Dedun.

As Kai continued to walk, Emily sat down on the floor as she talked to Maya. Maya continued to have an air of confidence at first, but it quickly started breaking the more Emily spoke. Eventually, Nadia was dropped from a portal, and another portal opened up. This one showed an image of Jotaro, Kakyoin, Joseph, Avdol, and Polnareff, along with a dog that Kai had never seen before.

Once Kai got a good look at the other side of the portal, he looked back up and nodded. “Yup, this is my world.”

“So this is where we say goodbye?” Emily asked.

Kai nodded. “I guess it is.”

“Well, then it was really cool meeting you!” Emily said. “I’ll never forget about you, so you better not forget about us!”

Kai looked back at everyone, giving a small laugh. “Don’t worry about that. It’s hard to forget a bunch like you guys!” he said. And with that, he jumped in the portal as it closed right behind him. He didn’t fall for long before he landed in the sand.

“Everyone! I’m back!” Kai shouted. The rest of the group didn’t move from their spots and didn’t speak either, instead just looking back, horrified.

“What’s wrong?” Kai asked, walking towards the others. “Come on, it’s me, you know that!” He suddenly stopped, realizing what could be going on.

Was I sent to the wrong world?

The more Kai thought about it, though, the less it seemed likely. If Kai was a stranger to these guys, they would’ve immediately gone on the defensive. No, something else was going on. He looked around, then noticed Kakyoin completely passed out, with blood dripping from his eyes.

“Oh, god, Noriaki!” Kai shouted. “What happened to Noriaki?”

“Kai, look out!” Avdol shouted. Kai looked back at the man, seeing that he was running straight for him. Avdol tackled Kai, and suddenly, Kai saw a stream of water cut off a piece of Avdol’s neck. Before he could process anything, though, he hit his head on the sand just right, and passed out.

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lotsofdreamb0ats · 25 days ago

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(breathing in deeply) Ok. Here we go. Doodle-relevant tangent beneath the cut

i am repeatedly struck by how little we actually get for Character-Descriptive backstory on avdol compared to. glances. literally everybody else. iirc araki kinda mentioned it would be too mature for shonen jump w out much elaboration. although it is definitely not the case i do Really love the idea of avdol being gay and that being extremely relevant to how he met joseph

i imagine avdol as probably the most openly gay a man could be in 1980s egypt, which in my mind involves a lot of quick one-and-done flings with foreigners. avdol likes to come across as very serious, put-together and modest but there are a lot of points in sdc where we see that he is Just As Crazy A Bitch as the other crusaders. i imagine his greatest 'vice' is an impulsivity towards attractive men, something he can mostly keep under wraps if he keeps to foreigners and those he already trusts (other stand users, realistically speaking)

joseph joestar is an incredibly hot older foreign man, canonical cheater, and world-traveling bisexual menace. i don't even think it's that far out of reach to imagine them hooking up, unknowingly attracted to eachother by their stands -- joseph would've used his freshly-formed hermit purple without thinking about it, maybe grabbing a drink or a condom or something, and avdol would've been the first person to mention its existence.

its fairly understandable that joseph would warn him abt dio, either then or at a dinner or something within the next days after that. it's definitely something that was supposed to last one night and turned into a more real partnership/friendship by the coexistence of their stands.

that being said, joseph does have a tendency to leave his one night stands pining (glances at tomoko), and i really don't think avdol is immune to that. like i said, avdol is the type to resign himself to relationships with a 'foreseeable' outcome. for him, being both gay and a stand user, not many of those are going to last longer than a night, week, or month at most.

there's an odd security to following joseph around. i think a lot about avdol first visiting new york, a place that for the time would seem so open in its homosexuality, and joseph taking him to the local gay bars. avdol doesn't even drink, mind you, but the concept of a tangibly queer space is foreign to him in the way the foreign has always allured him, drawn him in. avdol is, for better or worse, easily whipped. the kind of person that believes in strings of fate and divination and destiny, even if he previously thought his own -- the idle company of endlessly fleeting faces -- had already come to pass.

avdol has a lot of guilt upon learning joseph is married (i go back and forth on whether joseph and suzi have a 'men are okay' clause, but honestly, avdol wouldn't know about it either way). it's not the first time it's happened -- he's been able to ignore visible rings before, given that men who approach avdol typically leave them dull and unpolished. it's a bit harder to when mrs joestar happily welcomes him to their home and insists their servant rosas call him 'master avdol.'

at least avdol comes to a much easier realization than tomoko does. there's nothing as obstructive as pregnancy stopping avdol from separating himself again and letting their more lurid relationship ease out into a tasteful, practical friendship. a part of him still aches over it, though. there isn't much avdol wouldn't do at mr. joestar's behest.

as for joseph, it's equally easy for me to imagine him unintentionally leading avdol on or genuinely some of sharing avdol's nonsexual feelings. i view joseph's cheating as serial, nothing against suzi q (i 100% believe there isn't anyone alive joseph loves as much as her, save holly. i will never ignore wife love for the sake of yaoi.)

he forgets himself, though, distracted by a pretty face in the same ways he used to admonish caesar for. if there's one thing joseph will admit to, given its practically benign nature, really just the truth of the matter -- muhammad avdol has a very pretty face.

the fact avdol x joseph is a rarepair is genuinely distressing to me bc while i am nonetheless an avpol endgame truther i KNOW avdol fucked that old man and im not normal about it. i have CHARACTER THOUGHTS ABOUT IT

#avjose #<- my roman empire #i need to draw them for the main acc just so i can like propagandize further #anyway to restate for the class. avdol fucked that old man #or the other way around. i'm not gonna go into detail but i have my preferences #there was a time where avdol called him joseph. it's hard not to think of him as “mr joestar” after meeting mrs joestar though #THANK YOU FOR ASKING BTW I NEEDED AN EXCUSE TO GET THIS ON PAPER #i need to do a finished avjose piece but i'm not sure how id feel abt posting it to my art acc given i mostly think of them suggestively #but yeah <3 live laugh love muhammad “horrific taste in men” avdol #no offense polnareff #in fact this is a big reason why avpol works. at the end of the day polnareff is incredibly open and honest about being whipped for avdol #before they've even mentioned the idea of having sex. which i don't think avdol has ever rlly had

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starry-blue-echoes · 3 years ago

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Everyone is giving a bunch of ideas for the Jonaplat AU (i like than a lot by the way) but i'm just sitting here thinking about the realization time

Like, i don't even know if its going to be during SDC or after but

Jotaro just can't hide all of this anymore and decides to tell Joseph about it

Joseph recognizing the people in the drawings and he already heard some of this stories, didn't he? But it can't be who his thinking, right?

Maybe they go ask Avdol if it is possible for someone reincarnate as a stand

And after all of this, when they finally realize, Jotaro just summons Star and look at him saying "...Jonathan?"

And slowly Star gains this big smile, like he was waiting all this time for this

(I don't even know if this is how is gonna go, but my brain doesn't leave me alone and i NEED to tell someone about this)

OOOOOOOOOOOOO Y E S

Maybe this happens at the very end of Stardust, when they’re recovering in the hospital. Jotaro had to take off his jacket and was getting everything out of the pockets so it could be washed and mended….. at which he pulls out the drawings Jonathan made. They're both a bit upset that the knives Dio had thrown and Jotaro’s blood had slightly damaged most of them, but there’s not much that can be done

And then Joseph sees them. And doesn’t recognize all of them, but four in particular really stand out to him.

His Uncle Speedwagon, Granny Erina, Dio, and a man wearing Speedwagon’s hat.

Only they look young, far younger than he’d ever known them, Dio specifically looking like a young boy. And he remembered his uncle saying that his signature hat had belonged a friend, Caesar’s grandfather, a Zeppeli, before he died. Naturally, Joseph asks about the drawings, and Jotaro explains that Star Platinum had drawn them, and the fact he’d had dreams of these people. But he also says he doesn’t know who they are or why Star knows them

Then he mentions that Dio seemed to….. recognize Star. Not just as a Stand with similar abilities, but like Star was….. a person he’d known.

Slowly, the pieces begin to fall into place for Joseph.

And he says their names. One by one he gives names to the faces sketched out in pencil on worn paper, names to the people who’d been haunting Jotaro’s dreams for weeks.

Robert Speedwagon, Erina Pendleton, Dio Brando, William Zeppeli

And slowly he turns to Star, an unintelligible emotion on his face

“……Jonathan Joestar?” he asks.

And Jonathan freezes for a moment, staring right back. It had been so long since he’d been called by his name, so so long

He isn’t able to suppress the enormous grin that stretches across his face. He doesn’t suppress the urge to give Joseph an enormous hug either

He said his name. He knows who he is. He hasn’t been forgotten, Joseph knows now, and so does Jotaro

and Jonathan couldn’t be happier

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iron-touch · 2 years ago

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Author's Notes: Chapter 32 (The Man in the Picture)

Yay, another chapter with a short turnaround! Don't expect this trend to continue, as I have just enrolled in full time college again and am still getting used to it.

I was very cautious with the opening of Michelle in the changing room. That scene could get very, very creepy with the wrong prose, but I think I managed to make it more endearing than "male gazey."

Speaking of male gaze, Boney! Boney's back. My original plan for Chapter 31 was to end on the scene of Michelle seeing Boney in One Size Fits All, but I decided to change it in order to avoid feeling too similar to Chapter 18 (where the chapter ends with Michelle finding Boney's dead body on the plane). That worked out for the best, too, considering Chapter 31's length.

Reread the phone call Boney has with the Grand Marshal in Chapter 30; this is where he was sent to go. I think you should have an easier time filling in the blanks now.

Michelle having a panic attack and running away was one of the easiest I've ever written in my two years of Iron Touch. I don't know what that says about me.

Midler's back! Remember, High Priestess' user? No? Too bad. My original original outline called for Mariah here instead of Midler, and she would've walked with a gimp as a result of permanent damage she received from her fight with Joseph and Avdol. I changed this for a couple reasons: first of all, I would have had to rework/add onto Bastet in order for her to work in this arc, which I didn't think a lot of people would like. Also, Demonic Heartbreak used her already, so. Y'know. I think Midler fits better in Chicago IX as a SEES member anyways.

With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that Cascada wasn't a part of the original outline, either. High Priestess was originally going to be the "main" enemy Stand of this arc, but I changed that. I cannot stress enough that readers from Fanworks have been really rallying for more original Stands in Iron Touch. This is the best of both worlds—I get my canon characters and you get your OC. Hooray! I like Cascada and Moon River's aesthetics, if nothing else.

I did look it up and yes, bees are native to Egypt.

I feel like it should be pretty obvious what SEES is and how it works by now. If not, please let me know in some way and I can give a more detailed explanation in a future chapter.

In case you didn't know: a green room is an area backstage where actors wait for their cues to go onstage. I've heard different reasons for why they're called that; sometimes it's a simplified English pronunciation of a foreign word, other times it's because actors would throw up there, and I don't know which is accurate. They're not actually green. In smaller theaters (like an amphitheater), green rooms can double as hair and makeup rooms, like what we see here.

I feel like giving Moon River a mermaid theme is a bit of a cop out, but @simpingforcreamsoda said he really liked the design, so I hope you guys do too.

Music references:

Ok so I didn't originally intend for this to be a music reference, but there is a song called The Man in the Picture by The Bobkatz. I chose the title just based on it being a double reference to both Polnareff and Boney. But I listened to the song and I think it fits pretty well so I'm adding it to the playlist. Why not.

Cascada is named after a German dance music act of the same name. (I actually didn't know Cascada was German until now, the more you know)

Cascada's beta name was Moon River at one point, but that honestly did not last long. I'm trying to avoid making OCs with two word names, because having them be one word names is so much easier to write.

Moon River gets its name from a song originally sung by Audrey Hepburn for the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's. The song is so famous and has enough covers that I feel comfortable breaking my "no licensed music" rule (as in, no music originating from other media like video games or musicals) for it. The version I'm using on all the music reference playlists isn't the original Audrey Hepburn version, but rather the Andy Williams cover. I think that version specifically should give some insight as to why I chose this song. If you know, you know ;)

As a side note, "Tiffany Amphitheater" was named after Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Moon River's beta name was Hips Don't Lie, and the Stand's ability was going to be more tied to Cascada's dancing. As the ability changed, I changed the reference as well.

Not a music reference, but Midler's appearance here (specifically the buck teeth) were based off of Winifred Sanderson (played by Bette Midler) from the movie Hocus Pocus. IRL Midler has gone on record to say that this is her favorite film role of all time and she is the only reason that the sequel came out even remotely like it did, so I'm not just arbitrarily choosing a random movie reference here.

#iron touch #author’s notes

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goatpaste · 3 years ago

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Yeah, I do agree. Akari does very much have the Bury your Minorities trope in his writing a lot. Noticed the lack of women?(Outside of Lisa Lisa, who did not get a fair fight. Despite being 3x more powerful than Joseph.) Our only Canon gay couple doesn't even get spoken lines, they just die on screen brutally. (S&G p5)

Wonderful Man and Creator, but this really is one of the biggest flaws in his work.

he's got some stuff going here then really fucking falters with some of these fucking characters so hard its not even funny

like im not always one to say everyone living is a better alternative, because i see the impact with character death. and it worked well with iggy and kakyoin, but avdol was just? nothing? they really brought him back from the dead for 5 minutes just to half ass try to make his death emotional and everyone only sit on the death for half a second before moving on?? they really went! oh shit! avdol died fr fr! we better hurry and move on and not dwell on this at all, certainly not as long as the dogs death. but im like, idk i think avdol maybe shouldnt have been killed off twice with everyone kinda just either leaving him in the streets like a dog or barely getting the time to be upset about it.

also i havent gotten all the way through p2 so idk lisa lisa well but what i HAVe been told about her really is super :/ in terms of like letting her get to be cool swag.

araki's characters need to get with a real man, like me. ill treat them better

#ALSO #while avdol death was NOT great #i do think its funny that polnereff was the only survivor #some french guy they met on the way NOT invited just started tagging along #only one beside the joestars to survive lol #also polnereff being jotaros best friend is so so funny and good to me

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soupbabe · 4 years ago

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I think it was me ? Can I get the crusaders x reader who is a huge nerd and talks about ethics and morals often and video games and if they aren't talking about that they're quiet but when they get closer to the reader they're really loud and huge dumb ass, really sarcastic too and keeps their chill personality if they have to but their secretly really hyper and a child? Platonic for Joseph ofc

Stardust Crusaders x Smart (ish) Reader HCs

Yet again my personal favorites shine through in this 😔 also these are kind of a mess? My bad

Joseph Joestar (Platonic)

You were like a saint to have around on the trip half the time

You had a vast knowledge of the countries the group traveled to and without you, chances are he would've offended many people if you weren't there to correct his language

You didn't mind hanging around Mr. Joestar, he was funny and a good leader. He had that vibe to him that made it very easy to open up to

On occasion you would have to room with him and it usually was a night filled with dumb jokes (from the both of you) and Joseph telling you stories from his younger years

You would interupt during some stories, putting in what you would've done or general opinions

"That Kars person, you said that he could transform any body part he could. Does that mean he could've been like a Catboy?"

Y/N what the hell are you talking about.

Don't tell the man who lost a hand to a god that his enemy probably would've looked cute in cat ears.

Jotaro Kujo

You were seen as the "smart kid" at his school. Decent grades, teachers liked you, go to tutor, etc

Jotaro just knows you as the person who gives their detailed notes to him when he skips out on a lesson

He didn't pay any attention to you until one day from accross the school courtyard, he heard you seriously talking about a "demon" haunting you to your friends

You even brought it out, but turns out no one else but Jotaro could see it

That was the beginning of how y'all became friends, mostly thru Star being curious and poking around [stand name]

Beep bop boop Egypt time

A lot of your time in Egypt was telling Jotaro about how in the different countries they'll be traveling to, they'll be able to find different kinds of animals they wouldn't usually see in Japan

Jotaro actually enjoys your constant ramblings about the stuff you like, even if he doesn't really care too much about your nagging about how rude he treats people who really don't deserve it

his nicknames for you include "nerd" and "dumbass" but he means it in an affectionate way I swear

He really finds it cute when you have your dumb moments

He had to hide a smile behind his hat when he saw your reaction to the baby in the Death 13 arc

You had no idea that babies could open their eyes until a complete full year, similarly to how kittens can't for about a week

Noriaki Kakyoin

You both enjoy talking to each other a lot

I fully believe that you two's version of "flirting" is telling each other so many things you know to impress each other

Once you were able to open up to him more, he definitely enjoyed laughing at your dumb moments

Sometimes Kakyoin would question if you're actually alright when he finds out how dumb you can act sometimes

Y/N that's a raccoon not a puppy???

You both enjoy talking about video games together so much

Imagine staying up late talking about the lore of your favorite game and Kakyoin providing his own theories with you omg

3am Fnaf lore with Kakyoin 😳?

You both stay up all night trying to hack into Kakyoin's Gameboy and Kakyoin loves seeing the smile on your face when it works

Muhammad Avdol

He loves you so much its unbelievable

It was like you were made for each other tbh. You still had a lot of things in common with him, but your more laid back and careless side was still able to get him out of his comfort zone

He doesn't mind a reckless partner, but it's not too much that he feels as if he's taking care of a child instead of an s/o

He loves discussing your views on things and how your experiences led you to your current beliefs

You both give book recommendations to each other <3

But he'd be lying if he said that seeing you go wide eyed at various jewlry at markets and you mumbling "shiny" under your breath wasn't the cutest thing he ever saw

He sometimes teaches you how to do fortune telling and he's a very good teacher too

Positive reinforcement with kisses bby

You definitely proved him wrong when he said "There's no such things as stupid questions, ask away darling"

Jean-Pierre Polnareff

He would tell you that he was a man of philosophy just to get your attention, but would barely hang on to it when you start a discussion about it

It's not like he's stupid, but when you get to the details of things, he gets lost

Constantly praises you for being so smart

Loves hearing you ramble on about anything. Yes he isn't knowledgeable about video games, but it's hard to tell you to stop when your eyes light up when you're passionate about something

You both constantly get targeted by the enemies for goofing off together

But it's okay Polnareff would always be there for you and it's not like you're weak either

You just have poor fighting stragedy

When you and Pol room together it's so lighthearted and fun

You also fell for Cameo's genie like stand with him

You both agreed to split the wishes

You wished for your favorite animal to be your pet. You're a simple person with simple wishes

You both got so disappointed when it turned out it was a stand all along, both mumbling and complaining about how stupid it was

#jjba #jojo's bizarre adventure #jjba part 3 #jojos bizzare adventure stardust crusaders #jjba x reader #stardust crusaders #stardust crusaders x reader #jotaro kujo x reader #jotaro kujo #noriaki kakyoin x reader #noriaki kakyoin #joseph joestar #joseph joestar x reader #muhammad avdol x reader #muhammad avdol #jean pierre polnareff x reader #jean pierre polnareff

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holographqq · 4 years ago

Text

hail 2 u! ||polnareff x fem! reader

HEY HI so im just kinda dumping stuff from google docs onto here to kind of establish myself so anyway heres my french bb wjhged;; also minor spoilers if you haven’t finished stardust crusaders!!

word count: 2449

summary: you and polnareff were teamed by dio himself and saved by jotaro in hong kong. polnareff is hit with a wave of guilt as you and the crusaders reach what joseph has said to be avdol’s father’s island. you follow him out onto the beach to try and comfort him, and while it seems to work, the enemy stand hiding nearby inside an old middle-eastern kerosene lamp has no intention of giving you both time alone. that is, until the frenchman makes a certain wish.

trigger warnings: none :)

He sat down on the chopped stump of a palm tree, his head in the palm of his hand. She had followed after him when he walked away, she knew he wouldn’t stop blaming himself for the death of Avdol. She approached him from behind with a worried look on her face. “Polnareff…” She said, softly. He turned around. “Oh, [y,n].” He said. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be with Mr Joestar and the others?” She stayed silent. She calmly walked toward the Frenchman and rested on a large rock to his right. “I couldn’t just let you go on your own.” She muttered, her face growing warm. “You know what happens when you’re left by yourself, anyway.” She smiled somberly, trying to lighten the mood.

He chuckled dryly. “Yeah, yeah.” He turned toward her a bit. Thankfully her weak attempt at humor had worked, as his expression seemed less dull. The wind picked up a bit, causing the afternoon sun to beam down a bit more harshly on the beach. He turned his head, and she followed suit. He squinted his eyes. “Hey, is that…?” She tilted her head. “It looks like…” He stood up and approached the shiny object, a dull gold hue peppering through a barnacle clad shell. She raised herself off of the rock and took a few steps forward, glancing around his side. “It’s pretty.” He said, his eyebrows raised.

He picked it up and examined it. “I wonder if it came from a shipwreck. Look at all of those barnacles.” She added, moving around and picking at it with her fingernails. “Hey, hey! Careful! You might scratch the gold underneath!” He said, holding it above his head and significantly out of her reach. “H-Hey! No fair, Pol!” She cried with furrowed eyebrows. He laughed at her futile attempts. “Yeah, right!” The two of them went through a solid minute of teasing, insulting, jumping, and punching (Three of those four were brought upon by [y,n], that is), it seemed that the strange object had been rubbing around in his hand quite a bit.

A sudden burst of blinding light beamed out through what was left of the barnacles and caused Polnareff and [y,n] both to panic, and him to drop it. They both stepped back, [y,n] opposite to him. An odd smoke rose out of the tip of what was now seen to be a kerosene lamp of sorts; similar to the one from Aladdin. Though, the smoke disappeared just as quickly as it had come, causing the two of them to look around confused. The light and smoke both were gone, but the lamp remained. Polnareff sighed after a moment. “Man! That was weird. Must’ve been pressurized air from inside.” He said, a hand on his forehead. [y,n] nodded looking to the left. “Would’ve been cooler if there were a genie, but, you’re right. Probably just gas.”

When she looked back, however, she panicked and pointed behind him. “P-Polnareff, look out! A Stand!” He jumped, his eyes widening. He took long strides toward her and whipped his head around. “What the hell?!” A peculiar looking Stand, one which appeared to be more industrial than some of the previous that the group had encountered. “Three wishes!” The Stand called, holding up an arm-like appendage; though it had only three fingers on each hand. “I will grant you three wishes! Whatever you wish is my command, master!” The Stand was gigantic, standing a solid 10 feet tall. “My name is Cameo. Thank you for letting me out of my lamp.” [y,n] glanced around, sweat sliding down her cheek. “Uhh, n-no problem.”

Though, it didn’t seem that Polnareff was ready to initiate conversation with the entity. “Another Stand user! [y,n], back me up!” She looked at him and nodded her head. Blossom Samurai and Silver Chariot, both sword wielding Stands, got into a sort of formation, with Samurai behind Chariot. They battered Cameo with their swords, but they barely did any damage. Chariots rapier was too weak, and Blossom’s attacks were only a mere second too slow causing Cameo to dodge with ease. “Son of a…” Breathed them both in unison. “You’re pretty strong!” Said Polnareff. “Your user must be close. Where is he?” Cameo crossed its arms. “Again, I’m here only to grant wishes. Do you want your first wish to be a lame one like that?” He groaned.

Polnareff granted. “Yeah, yeah, what is it with you and wishes, huh? Are you saying you can make me rich right now?” Cameo’s voice was unwavering. “Is that your first wish?” Polnareff relaxed a small bit, but was still on edge. “You know what? Sure, dumbo. Let’s see you put your money where your mouth is.” Cameo’s arms uncrossed. [y,n] squinted. “Fine, then. Your wish shall be granted.” The two of them raised their eyebrows. “Huh?” Mumbled [y,n]. Cameo put its arms in an odd position, like a puppeteer would do, and raised its voice. “Hail 2 U!”

It immediately disappeared, causing them to blink a few times and watch the leftover smoke dissipate. Polnareff reached down and pulled the half buried lamp from the sand. Night had nearly fallen by now, but it was still visible. “What was all that about?” Polnareff asked in a confused tone. He sighed. “So…” she muttered. “What was that thing? Was it a Stand, or wasn’t it?” He shrugged. “If it is, what a weird Stand to send after someone.” He noted with a chuckle. She nodded her head. Damn these Stand users; she just wanted a chance to be with Polnareff. She excused the thought from her head with a bite of her lip. “Do you think maybe it’s got something to do with Avdol’s dad?” He shrugged his shoulders, the sunlight caressing his face in a way that would make anyone melt.

Her face got hot again. This stupid Frenchman has no idea what he’s doing, sending soft gazes her way. Every time he laughed, she felt like melting butter. She couldn’t help but look away from him with a coy grin. Polnareff chuckled. “Hey, what’s that look for? Come on, you don’t have to force yourself to look away. I know you think I’m hot.” He teased nonchalantly. She rolled her eyes and laughed. “Hah! As if, stupid.” She sent him a playful grin and stuck her tongue out. She was really hoping he didn’t actually know.

It was then in that moment, both of them smiling goofily at each other, that a noise was heard. “Hey, what was that?” He asked, turning around. “Sounded like metal.” She said, walking in the direction of the noise. It was near; maybe just in the grass 6 feet away. Polnareff followed suit, and lo and behold. “W-Whoa!” She cried, leaning in. “No way!” He yelled afterward. The two of them crowded around what appeared to be a half buried chest of doubloons, jewelry, and bejeweled goldware. “T-That’s real buried treasure!” He called, scooping a few coins out. “But how?” She asked, tuning her fingers through it. “Hell if I know! But this is all mine!” He laughed chaotically.

“You little—! I helped you find this, I get half! 50/50!” He snorted. “As if, stupid!” He retorted, mocking her previous statement. “Ooooh, I’m gonna kick your--!” Directly before she went for his money, Cameo’s booming voice echoed from above. “Now, what is your second wish? I shall grant it.” The two of them shot their gazes up to the Stand. Polnareff freaked and dropped the coins, to which [y,n] then picked up and stuffed in her pocket. “Y-You! Why are you doing this?! Whatever you have up your sleeve, I’m not falling for it!” He yelled up at the genie, perched in a palm tree. “I am keeping the gold though.” He added shortly after.

Cameo stayed silent for a moment. The only sound that could be heard was the wind blowing and the ocean rocking. “Is the answer to that question your second wish? As thanks for my freedom, I’ll give you anything, including such a stupid answer.” [y,n] huffed and nudged Polnareff. He looked down at her and his expression softened. “F-Fine, then.” He closed his eyes and sighed. “I want to be a comic artist!” He exclaimed. The answer threw [y,n] for a loop completely. A comic artist? She had never known he was interested in art. In fact, the only interest he’d shown was when he’d watch her draw.

“I’ve always wanted to be one! And not just some starving artist, either! I want to be more popular than Walt Disney!” She furrowed her eyebrows with a stunned expression. “Huh?” She whispered. “Pol, I don’t think—“ he cut her off. “I want to create Polnareff Land!” He stood with his arms out in a comically dramatic stance, [y,n] in a stunned (and slightly embarrassed) silence at his side. “... Is this your wish?” Polnareff lowered his arms. “Actually, no, wait,” Oh thank God. She wiped metaphorical sweat from her forehead. Maybe he’d think of something more rational.

“I want a girlfriend!”

The phrase made her freeze in place. Her eyes were wide and her throat closed. He wanted a girlfriend, did he? He really must have just thought of her as a friend, then. She kept her mouth shut and kept her eyes on Cameo. What was she supposed to say to that? The words echoed in her mind. She wanted to love him like that so badly, but Polnareff seemed to feel otherwise. “Love is better than money or fame.” He said with a grin. At least he was sincere about that, she could tell. “She’s got to be really cute. I want a girl who’s my perfect match! Our pinkies entwined with the red string of love!” He held up his right pinkie finger for emphasis.

Polnareff had never made her feel so conflicted before. Her insecurities began to softly gnaw at her. Was she not cute enough? She felt like they were perfect for each other. She’d liked him since Hong Kong. Was this really happening? She simply kept her gaze on Cameo. She stared at it. What was it going to do? She thought genies couldn’t make people fall in love. “You want me to find the perfect match for you?” It asked him. “Yeah! Try that, bastard!” Cameo sat still for a moment. As she was staring, she noticed it turn its head slightly in her direction. It was looking at her.

She inhaled sharply. What was it doing? Cameo was completely silent for several seconds until it finally decided to pipe up. “Very well.” It turned its head back to Polnareff slowly. “Hail 2 U!” The Stand once again dissolved into smoke. Polnareff looked at his finger expectantly, and sure enough, there it was. She saw it too. The red string of fate. He grinned. “Oh, wow! I finally get to have my perfect girl!” He beamed. She stayed silent. He looked down at her curiously. “Hey, you okay? You’d usually have made fun of me or something by now.” She looked ahead and nodded. “Yeah! Yeah, I’m good. I’m happy for you, man.” Though she never once looked at him. Polnareff sighed. “Thanks, I’m glad too! Let’s see, where does it lead?” He held the string and noticed it went to his right. He looked in growing surprise to see [y,n] standing there, staring into the ocean with the most flat look he’d seen her sport, and a growing lump in her throat. Was she about to cry?

He wasn’t really sure what prompted him to do it. What made him want to look down first before pressing her on how she felt. Though he was sure glad he did; in fact, it was arguably the best decision he made during that 50 day trip. If he hadn’t taken a mere half second to glance down below her waist, Polnareff wouldn’t have caught the crimson string tied around her finger until a much later, possibly much more awkward time during their interaction. He felt his heart swell inside of his chest, sheer ecstasy causing blood to rush to his cheeks and make his face burn as if he himself were a bonfire of sheer emotion.

“H-Hey…” he began, reaching out with a shaky left hand. “Hm?” She looked over. She hoped the darkness of night would hide the tear that had dropped from her right eye and down her cheek. “[y,n], you, uh… your hand.” She slowly held up her left hand and stared in shock at the string around her pinkie. “That’s— that’s the-“ she quickly turned to look at his hand. Sure enough, the two were bound. Polnareff soon grew a stupid grin. “Well, well. Look at that.” The utter euphoria she experienced in that moment went unmatched with anything else she’d ever felt. “We-“ she choked back another sob as more tears fell. She covered her mouth and shut her eyes.

Polnareff freaked out. “H-Hey!! You okay? [y,n], c’mon! I’m not that bad!” He joked. “You idiot!” She called, throwing her arms around him. “You scared me!” She heaved into his shoulder. “I thought- I thought you didn’t—“ she shakily said. He chuckled. “Hey, hey! Calm down! If you’re wondering if I didn’t like you, you’re not just wrong. You’re stupid.” He grinned softly. She giggled like a little kid on Christmas. “I was so afraid when you said you wanted a girlfriend.” She said, pulling away. Polnareff put his arms around her waist.

“I thought I wasn’t good enough.” She laughed awkwardly. “I only said it because I thought you didn’t like me.” She noticed a glimmer in Polnareff’s eye; he was crying too. “O-Oh, Pol, you-“ before she could say another word he pressed his full lips against hers in a brief kiss. “Shut up.” He laughed, tears smeared on her face. She snorted and wiped his cheek. “I’ve liked you for so long. Ever since Hong Kong.” He scoffed playfully. “Ever since Dio paired us, you little snail. Did you just ignore all my little attempts to go on dates with you?” She giggled. “I didn’t wanna take it the wrong way. You never actually asked, idiot.”

“Well, how about this.” He cleared his throat and laughed again. “Do you want to go on a date with me?” She nodded with a dumb grin. “Yes, yes, of course, dumbass.” She leaned up for a kiss and he returned the gesture. “Let’s beat the hell outta this guy and regroup, okay?” He smiled. “My pleasure.”

#jojo's bizarre adventure #jjba x reader #jjba sdc #stardust crusaders #jean pierre polnareff #polnareff jojo #jean pierre polnareff x reader #polnareff x reader #jjba part three #jotaro kujo #muhammed avdol #joseph joestar #noriaki kakyoin #iggy jjba #jjba fanfic #this is old but idc #i think its cute so HAH #x reader #anime x reader

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