starmark | IC Inbox

What noise in here? It's just me and the dog.

[HE SAYS, OBLIVIOUSLY, as he eventually gets himself up and moves to let Rohan in. And indeed, once he's sufficiently out of the way and no longer blocking the view, there lies a dog in one of the far corners of the room, with bowls of food and water available nearby and some kind of lumpy blanket underneath him as a makeshift bed of sorts.]

What's with the lamps?

[ Oh what the fuck. ]

A DOG? When did you get a dog??

[ The recollection of the words He had a dog from the other night isn't even an afterthought. It doesn't come to mind at all. ]

How long has it been here?? [ Don't drop your lamps, Rohan. ]

And they're candelabras. Not lamps.

[It shows, though, in the way the memory flickers across his expression; it shows in the way his gaze darts away and low, how just for a second he goes vulnerable and uncertain. There's recollection written all over his features, punctuated by a too-hard swallow and a short sharp intake of breath, and then it's gone and he's fine again, albeit a little quieter than before.]

A couple nights ago. I brought it home with me. Um...that night, I mean.

[The dog, meanwhile, pricks its ears and cocks its head, watching the two of them curiously.]

I didn't want to just leave it there. So I just...

So you brought it here. [ Joatro's got the best of intentions but the best of intentions fall short with Snakebutt over here. ]

I'm not paying extra coins so I can get Mana to put a pet clause in my lease. [ He squints his eyes at their new canine pal. ]

We already have a dog who crawls around over this way and its name is Josuke.

I'm not going to keep it forever. Just until I figure out what else to do with it.

[After he, y'know. ATE ITS FORMER (presumably jerkass) OWNER.]

Besides, it's not bothering you. I've been keeping him for a couple days now and you didn't even know he was here.

You're going to get attached to it and then you won't want to give it up. [ Rohan huffs and shoulders his way (barely) past Jotaro to set his candelabras anywhere. And to just... Get a better look at the dog. ]

Have you named it?

That would involve getting attached to it. Right now it's just the dog.

[He pauses, giving Rohan the space to do as he pleases, and then closes the door and returns to his bed to sprawl out on it again. What he doesn't realize, in doing this, is that it actually makes him look rather magnificent: a lounging dragon, tail and wings and horns, with the body of a human whose soft faded tank top is rumpled and riding up from the friction.]

I'm not so great at naming things. I didn't even name Star Platinum; that was somebody else, doing it for me.

[YOU NAMED CRAZY DIAMOND but then again, maybe that speaks for itself]

[ The objects are placed on the window sill and Rohan peeks through it. It's getting darker. ]

Star Platinum... [ He turns his head--... D'aww, he looks comfortable. ] You are really enjoying having a bed finally, aren't you? [ How Jotaro is allowed to fit in one and he isn't is a Mystery. ]

Do you like it here?

The fact that you even have to say "finally" should speak for itself.

[Fleetingly, he thinks of Jiji, slapping the mats on the floor at home and complaining audibly about wanting a bed instead. His mother was always on him to do things the Japanese way, wasn't she? Act Japanese, if you're going to live in Japan.

He thinks of how she'd looked, in her nest of blankets on the floor with the Speedwagon Foundation moving in with their machines and their surveillance. He remembers how she'd tried to get up and go about her chores like nothing was wrong.

For once in his life he'll agree with Jiji. She needs to sleep in a damn bed for the rest of her life; he never wants to see her lying on a floor again.]

You mean life in a castle, do I like it here? I like sitting on the roof. And it's...spacious. Dry, quiet. It's not bad, as...homes...go.

[He hesitates a little over that one word, unsure how he feels about so casually terming it "home".]

I think it's way too big for just two people, but that's nothing new to me or to you, is it?

[ Rohan is aware that it isn't a home yet. He is personalizing it as fast as he can to give the illusion of it. Nothing here has felt like a home yet. In time. ]

I was never one for closed spaces or staying in the same spot. I moved to Morioh to get away from the cities and be somewhere quiet. That meant getting a mansion for myself. This is sort of the same thing. If I can't have my house back, I should go for the next best thing.

I will admit that it needs to be broken in. I'm sprucing it up so it doesn't look so dreary. That is hard to do around here, I know. If you have any ideas, send them my way. [ He winds across the room, coiling up next to the bed. ]

I had a question. You had been talking about buying Star Platinum from Mana. Did you ever go about that?

...Yeah. After that other night, I did. You'd let me go by then.

[He raises his eyebrows a little in implication; evidently, for all the other subjects on which he's been hesitant and dodgy, he's not planning to shy away from this aspect of it.]

Is that the question? You just wanted to know if I'd done it? Or was there something else?

I had to let you go at some point or I was going to spring a blood clot and die. [ True story. ]

Yes, that's the question. I didn't put a question mark at the end of anything else.

[ Huff. ]

I'm glad you held on as long as you did.

[And presumably that it wasn't long enough to spring a blood clot and die, and so on.]

And you've got your answer, then. I have him back. The dog's a little confused by him, but they're figuring it out.

[ His jaws press into themselves, pursing his lips. He's glad he held on for so long. That's. Nice. The pause lingers and eventually he clears his throat. ]

You do-- [ Yes, Rohan. That's what he said. ] And you've shown him to the dog but not me. [ is this like meeting his mom or something ]

I see how it is. After everything I've done.

...You're jealous. Of a dog?

[This is simultaneously the most absurd and yet somehow funniest thing that's happened to him in a long, long time. This particular brand of sulkiness is an interesting one out of Rohan — prickly without running too far into annoyed, but absolutely expecting to somehow be appeased.

It makes him ease himself back upright again, feet on the ground and hands at either side of him on the edge of the mattress as he regards Rohan with a thoughtful, lingering look.]

I did say, "is there something else". All you had to do was ask.

That should have been a given.

[ He is NOT jealous of the dog. It's just a weirdly personal #littlestanduserthing ]

I didn't think I had to ask.

It would've been faster, at least.

[But he closes his eyes, and in the second that follows, the air next to him shimmers as Star Platinum is summoned forth, seeming to erupt from out of his shoulder to take up a guardian's stance nearby.

After months of wishing for him to be there and never feeling a reply, it's nothing short of abject relief to be able to reach for Star and feel him respond now. The connection is there again, the understanding, the wavelength. The gargoyle isn't the only thing taking up residence in his subconscious anymore — and Star will always only do what's best for him.

He's really majestic, this Stand of his. Unsettling though his capabilities may have been in the past, it's still awfully nice to see him again.]

[ Oh, my stars.

He hadn't brought anything but the silly lamps with him and that was a mistake. He has Jotaro and what his form has chosen to mimic right near each other. Not cookie-cutter but enough for him to make the connection. That sure is a giant purple spirit guy. ]

... So even without Heaven's Door, I can still see it. [ Which means his sensitivity hasn't gone away. Rohan's hands come together, clasping one another under his chest admiringly. He's smiling too. Yoooo... ] You really did get him back!

You look alike now.

...You're right. So whatever they did to our Stands, they really are just sealed somehow, instead of removed for good.

[Which makes sense, he supposes. If they're a part of you, a manifestation of something about you, then taking it away again — that'd mean removing a whole part of a person's soul, wouldn't it? Maybe they can't do that. Or maybe they just want the citizens here to lose their souls a different way.

That's a little too dismal for right now, though. Not while Rohan looks like a kid in a candy store at the sight of Star Platinum; that's cute enough that it ought to be savored.]

You really like him, huh? You look like it's Christmas come early.

[ He sure does look like a kid in a candy store. ]

Well yes-- [ The manifestation of a Stand is the closest thing from home he has run across since ending up here. Not even Josuke has Crazy Diamond. Rohan looks as if he is fit to jump forward at any moment. Understandably, he is tired and has a smidge of restraint. ]

It's incredible, Jotaro! Have you considered that you may be the only other person fortunate enough to have something so personal. [ He could be exaggerating. He makes an instinctive palm for something next to him that isn't there-- ]

Of all the times to not bring my book... [ Nice hustle there, Kishibe. ]

I — well, I mean. He's...he's what I wanted.

[Evidently the intensity of Rohan's enthusiasm is starting to take its toll, leaving Jotaro fast approaching the verge of being flustered from watching and being exposed to it. He's this happy...it's so cute he almost doesn't know what to do with it.

What he does do, though, is directs Star forward, closing the distance so that Rohan doesn't have to, and putting him well within reach of wandering hands if any should so choose to wander.]

It's kind of weird...I'm so used to having him out for fighting that he almost doesn't know what he's supposed to do when there's no battle around. But it's...I mean, we're adjusting to it. It's good to feel him there again. To know he'll be there if I ever reach for him.

[ What's he supposed to do? Shake its hand? He'll keep his claws to himself thank you, fingers lacing and one thumb set atop the other. ]

He's like a huge purple security blanket. [ No offense. It rolls off of his tongue faster than he can catch it. ] If you aren't utilizing him for battle, then... What are you supposed to do with him? [ His fingers unlace to curiously wiggle them up next to the side of his head to see if the Stand will follow them with his eyes.

... Like, ya know, a cat. ]

I'm not saying we need another set of hands around the house.

Well. He does this?

[An instant passes, and then in a flash Star is moving, zipping across the room to retrieve the knickknack that Jotaro has evidently just sent him on a mission to go retrieve — what looks like a red rubber ball that presumably the dog has been chewing on.

It's far from the instantaneous, faster-than-the-eye-can-see movements he might've made at home, but he's still quite speedy about it, and seems pleased to have been given a task to complete in the first place.]

Sort of like you and your tail. Plus, he's a second set of eyes. That has its uses. And —

[He pauses a minute, and once again Star moves, but this time it isn't to retrieve a ball; on the contrary, this time it's a gift he's got in mind, and it comes in the form of a light half-phantom kiss pressed against Rohan's temple by grinning purple lips.]

...I don't know. I'm sure I can come up with something interesting to do with him.

[What a shit.]

So if I ever need a fetch quest done, he can do that...

[ Boy, Mana knows how to give you your junk back. Should he have splurged for Heaven's Door, he would have himself a floating butler.

OKAY, he didn't expect a weird ghost kiss. He bats at the air to half-assedly shoo the Stand away. Successful or unsuccessful, he's still going to Tsun Aggressively. ]

Was that you or him?

[ Is this going to be a thing now. ]

Is that going to make a difference, as far as what you think of it?

[He raises his eyebrows, waggling them in overt implication.]

Either way, I felt it. I guess it's true even outside of battle — what happens to a Stand reflects back onto its user.

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, THIS IS JOTARO. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 019.20.118.16 * THIS IS JOTARO has joined 019.20.118.16 <THIS IS JOTARO> okay i'm typing now what <THIS IS JOTARO> delete what i just said <THIS IS JOTARO> delete what i just said <THIS IS JOTARO> delete everything i just said <THIS IS JOTARO> make this an automated messa <AUTOMATED REPLY, DO NOT RETURN>** This is Jotaro. Whatever you want, hurry up and tell me already.

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