[Shrugging slightly, he walked over and stepped deliberately behind Kakyoin, his vantage point made possible by the difference in their respective heights. With a glance to his shoulders, he adjusted himself to be standing at the same angle, and looked out over the view in an attempt to see the same thing Kakyoin was.
And maybe, why he'd gravitated to this view in particular.]
[Unexpected as that was, Kakyoin found he wasn't all that surprised. After the mess tonight had been maybe he'd just run out of the ability to be surprised at all.]
[...It was kind of reassuring, if he was being honest. This whole thing had just reinforced the idea that having Jotaro nearby was one of the few things that could keep Kakyoin completely grounded and miles away from his own uncertainty.]
[He shifted his hands to Kakyoin's shoulders, angling him slightly — and admittedly, a little more in the direction of the clocktower, but only because that was also the direction of the city's skyline as well.]
Look. It's dark all the way out at the horizon, but you can still see the shapes of the buildings even though the light isn't outlining them. It's not just nothingness, you can still see the things that are there.
You can see where the river is because of the way the light is refracting off of it.
...It's not like the desert was. There, the darkness kind of...came all the way down to the sand and filled up all the air around you. Like this you can see the shapes holding it back from doing that.
[This place was a different world in all possible ways, both literal and otherwise. A world where it wasn't just a group of six risking their lives against impossible odds, one where others existed that they could rely on and fight with.]
[The kind of impossible world where he wasn't alone.]
...I have to admit, I've grown to like it just a little.
[Unconsciously, his hands tightened slightly on Kakyoin's shoulders, not so much out of tension as just for the security of it — knowing where they both were, for that single moment in time.]
I broke his skull open. I don't think I told you that part.
Yeah? Good--he deserved that much and a hell of a lot more.
[Looking for that same sense of security Kakyoin moved his hand to rest over one of Jotaro's.]
I...I probably should have told you how long it had been. I didn't want you to find out like this. [A pause.] I would have told any of you if you had asked, but...I was kind of grateful none of you ever did.
[Kakyoin couldn't stop time and had no desire to have the ability, but if he did...for a fleeting second he caught himself thinking he'd want to do it right now. So this moment, with his best friend at his back and their hands touching in a silent mutual reassurance, would last just a few seconds longer.]
[Without a word, he looked off to the side--unwilling to move but wanting to get the clock tower back out of his line of sight. This was something he wanted to be able to focus on, and he didn't need that thing at the back of his mind ruining it with an irrational annoyance.]
[He frowned, brow furrowing as Kakyoin's shift drew his notice, and so he naturally glanced in the other direction in an attempt to figure out what it was that was bothering him.
At first, he didn't see much of anything of note. There were the glow of streetlamps and the buildings they illuminated, the horizon far off in the distance and the city's epicenter closer, the tops of buildings making rows and jagged columns against the sky and the spire of the clocktower —
...Oh. Was that...]
...
[Quietly, he let go of Kakyoin's shoulders, sliding his hand free just long enough to let him move — and stepped to stand next to him instead, positioning himself at Kakyoin's side, between where he was standing and the view of the city proper.
He was taller, and broad. Maybe that'd be good for something, right now.
It made for an odd echo of what had happened between them earlier — once again, Jotaro putting himself between Kakyoin and something else. But this time the atmosphere was quiet, and the undertones weren't fiercely protective so much as just...
Well. That was for Kakyoin to figure out, anyway.]
[He didn't snap or demand an explanation this time, catching on almost immediately to what Jotaro was doing and why. It was a stupid thing to him, to feel a cold sense of dread twisting in his stomach over something as ordinary as a clock.]
[It's 5:15...that means it's around midnight in Japan. I wonder what my parents are doing.]
[...He'd maintain that he hadn't been afraid to die, and as far as Kakyoin was concerned he hadn't been.If he feared anything in his last moments, it was the thought that he wouldn't be able to maintain Hierophant long enough to break it, or that his message itself simply wouldn't get across. The idea that his friends could all die while only Kakyoin himself knew the secret of The World had been the most terrifying thing he could think of.]
[But after some time in this city and after the reassurance that yes, it was over, everything was fine and they'd managed to win...he fell back on the very human and very normal thought of I don't want to die. What if they couldn't find a way back that had a positive outcome? What if the only way back to Egypt landed him right back in a crushed water tower?]
[Thoughts leaving him distracted from what he was actually doing, Kakyoin didn't realize he'd reached over to take Jotaro's hand again until he'd actually done it.]
[This was...it was undeniable proof that Kakyoin Noriaki was still alive. He was breathing the summer night air of another world--his heart was going perhaps a little faster than it should have, but it was still beating in his chest. Instead of the fading view of dissolving tripwires and a shattered clock, his line of sight was clear and on the one person whose side he'd been at from the start.]
[And whatever it was he meant by that — their future in the city, their future beyond the city, the question of Giorno Giovanna, their memories, something else entirely...
Whatever it was...they'd figure it out. Maybe slowly. Maybe with setbacks. Maybe they'd screw up and hurt each other and have to pick up the pieces in the aftermath.
But they'd figure it out. In the end, they'd figure it out. He was sure about that.]
...And the next time we do this, this'll be my place to stand.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2015-08-26 07:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-26 07:51 pm (UTC)[...]
It still seems a little weird, having something like that be unlikely.
no subject
Date: 2015-08-26 07:59 pm (UTC)[Shrugging slightly, he walked over and stepped deliberately behind Kakyoin, his vantage point made possible by the difference in their respective heights. With a glance to his shoulders, he adjusted himself to be standing at the same angle, and looked out over the view in an attempt to see the same thing Kakyoin was.
And maybe, why he'd gravitated to this view in particular.]
no subject
Date: 2015-08-26 08:14 pm (UTC)[Unexpected as that was, Kakyoin found he wasn't all that surprised. After the mess tonight had been maybe he'd just run out of the ability to be surprised at all.]
[...It was kind of reassuring, if he was being honest. This whole thing had just reinforced the idea that having Jotaro nearby was one of the few things that could keep Kakyoin completely grounded and miles away from his own uncertainty.]
...So what're you looking at?
no subject
Date: 2015-08-26 08:44 pm (UTC)[He shifted his hands to Kakyoin's shoulders, angling him slightly — and admittedly, a little more in the direction of the clocktower, but only because that was also the direction of the city's skyline as well.]
Look. It's dark all the way out at the horizon, but you can still see the shapes of the buildings even though the light isn't outlining them. It's not just nothingness, you can still see the things that are there.
You can see where the river is because of the way the light is refracting off of it.
...It's not like the desert was. There, the darkness kind of...came all the way down to the sand and filled up all the air around you. Like this you can see the shapes holding it back from doing that.
no subject
Date: 2015-08-26 09:07 pm (UTC)[This place was a different world in all possible ways, both literal and otherwise. A world where it wasn't just a group of six risking their lives against impossible odds, one where others existed that they could rely on and fight with.]
[The kind of impossible world where he wasn't alone.]
...I have to admit, I've grown to like it just a little.
no subject
Date: 2015-08-26 09:47 pm (UTC)I want to hear what there is for me to like, too.
no subject
Date: 2015-08-27 12:16 am (UTC)And I...as weird as it's been to get used to, I like that people can see Hierophant.
no subject
Date: 2015-08-27 12:23 am (UTC)All the other stuff aside, you were kind of an okay kid. Just as sneaky as you are now.
no subject
Date: 2015-08-27 12:25 am (UTC)[. . .]
I mean, not unless I need to be. What are you even talking about?
no subject
Date: 2015-08-27 12:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-27 12:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-27 12:30 am (UTC)Not decide to investigate the guy themselves.
no subject
Date: 2015-08-27 12:33 am (UTC)I trusted Hierophant more than I did other people, when I was that age.
no subject
Date: 2015-08-27 12:44 am (UTC)[He went quiet a minute.]
But I'm glad we met.
no subject
Date: 2015-08-27 12:49 am (UTC)[Kakyoin said that quietly, eyes downcast.]
Those months before all of this, stuck as his mindless puppet--if that's what had to happen in order to meet you and the others, then it was worth it.
no subject
Date: 2015-08-27 01:12 am (UTC)I broke his skull open. I don't think I told you that part.
no subject
Date: 2015-08-27 01:17 am (UTC)[Looking for that same sense of security Kakyoin moved his hand to rest over one of Jotaro's.]
I...I probably should have told you how long it had been. I didn't want you to find out like this. [A pause.] I would have told any of you if you had asked, but...I was kind of grateful none of you ever did.
no subject
Date: 2015-08-27 01:34 am (UTC)So that's what you ought to have in return.
no subject
Date: 2015-08-27 01:37 am (UTC)There really isn't much more to tell than what I've already said, anyway--I was being honest when I said I don't remember much of it.
no subject
Date: 2015-08-27 04:03 am (UTC)The quiet isn't so annoying when you're right there, too.
no subject
Date: 2015-08-27 04:12 am (UTC)[Kakyoin couldn't stop time and had no desire to have the ability, but if he did...for a fleeting second he caught himself thinking he'd want to do it right now. So this moment, with his best friend at his back and their hands touching in a silent mutual reassurance, would last just a few seconds longer.]
[Without a word, he looked off to the side--unwilling to move but wanting to get the clock tower back out of his line of sight. This was something he wanted to be able to focus on, and he didn't need that thing at the back of his mind ruining it with an irrational annoyance.]
no subject
Date: 2015-08-27 04:23 am (UTC)What...
[He frowned, brow furrowing as Kakyoin's shift drew his notice, and so he naturally glanced in the other direction in an attempt to figure out what it was that was bothering him.
At first, he didn't see much of anything of note. There were the glow of streetlamps and the buildings they illuminated, the horizon far off in the distance and the city's epicenter closer, the tops of buildings making rows and jagged columns against the sky and the spire of the clocktower —
...Oh. Was that...]
...
[Quietly, he let go of Kakyoin's shoulders, sliding his hand free just long enough to let him move — and stepped to stand next to him instead, positioning himself at Kakyoin's side, between where he was standing and the view of the city proper.
He was taller, and broad. Maybe that'd be good for something, right now.
It made for an odd echo of what had happened between them earlier — once again, Jotaro putting himself between Kakyoin and something else. But this time the atmosphere was quiet, and the undertones weren't fiercely protective so much as just...
Well. That was for Kakyoin to figure out, anyway.]
no subject
Date: 2015-08-27 04:48 am (UTC)[He didn't snap or demand an explanation this time, catching on almost immediately to what Jotaro was doing and why. It was a stupid thing to him, to feel a cold sense of dread twisting in his stomach over something as ordinary as a clock.]
[It's 5:15...that means it's around midnight in Japan. I wonder what my parents are doing.]
[...He'd maintain that he hadn't been afraid to die, and as far as Kakyoin was concerned he hadn't been.If he feared anything in his last moments, it was the thought that he wouldn't be able to maintain Hierophant long enough to break it, or that his message itself simply wouldn't get across. The idea that his friends could all die while only Kakyoin himself knew the secret of The World had been the most terrifying thing he could think of.]
[But after some time in this city and after the reassurance that yes, it was over, everything was fine and they'd managed to win...he fell back on the very human and very normal thought of I don't want to die. What if they couldn't find a way back that had a positive outcome? What if the only way back to Egypt landed him right back in a crushed water tower?]
[Thoughts leaving him distracted from what he was actually doing, Kakyoin didn't realize he'd reached over to take Jotaro's hand again until he'd actually done it.]
[This was...it was undeniable proof that Kakyoin Noriaki was still alive. He was breathing the summer night air of another world--his heart was going perhaps a little faster than it should have, but it was still beating in his chest. Instead of the fading view of dissolving tripwires and a shattered clock, his line of sight was clear and on the one person whose side he'd been at from the start.]
...thanks.
no subject
Date: 2015-08-27 05:06 am (UTC)[And whatever it was he meant by that — their future in the city, their future beyond the city, the question of Giorno Giovanna, their memories, something else entirely...
Whatever it was...they'd figure it out. Maybe slowly. Maybe with setbacks. Maybe they'd screw up and hurt each other and have to pick up the pieces in the aftermath.
But they'd figure it out. In the end, they'd figure it out. He was sure about that.]
...And the next time we do this, this'll be my place to stand.
(no subject)
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