IC Inbox | rubycity_rp | I

[starmark]

. . . Yare yare. What is it? Hurry up and say something already.



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[OOC: Contact through any format is fine, including action as you see fit!]

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[mylegacy]

. . . You really want to know that?

[starmark]

That's why I asked.

[mylegacy]

Oh.

. . . I have four.

[starmark]

All younger?

[mylegacy]

That's right.

[. . .]

Jotaro. I can trust you, right?

[starmark]

I think that's your call to make, Caesar.

But I take people trusting me seriously, so you can decide based on that.

[mylegacy]

If I said I wanted something to stay between us

even if it seemed small and stupid and inconsequential

[starmark]

Then it would stay between us. Period.

[mylegacy]

Right.

My father left when I was young. They don't really remember him, mostly. And the rest of the family took everything - home and money. So I took care of them.

[starmark]

...So you never got to be a kid.

It's fucked up that they did that to you guys.

[mylegacy]

I don't need pity. It's just what happened.

They're good kids, though. All of them in different ways.

[starmark]

It's not pity. It's just the truth, that's fucked up.

What are they like?

[mylegacy]

Maybe.

Nicola's the oldest, she used to help me the most. She was good with the rest of them, the boys mostly. I don't think I would have been able to do all of it without her.

Marcello jokes a lot, he likes people to always be smiling if he can manage it. He used to get frustrated with me sometimes because he said I was too serious, but he tried to help in other ways, too - he always worked hard and brought in as much money as he could, but he made sure to go to school, too, and keep his grades up, because he knew that was important to me.

Benito skipped school and fought a lot because he thought - he was just angry, like me, or he wanted to be like me, or something. He likes animals. Snakes. I worried about him most, I still do, really.

And Maria's the baby. She used to help me cook when I was ten and she was four . . . that's when I taught her. I had to stand her on a chair so she could reach the stove, but she wanted so much to help. She always wants to help.

[starmark]

Did you like taking care of them?

I don't mean like, "as opposed to hating it". I mean...obviously it was hard, but were things about it happy, too? Do you have good memories of taking care of them?

[mylegacy]

They were the best part of my life. Without question. I loved them more than anything. They were the only people who made me happy.

[starmark]

I gave my word, and I'm not going to go back on it, period.

But can I ask why you want this to stay between us?

[mylegacy]

You really don't have any idea?

[starmark]

You don't want everyone's pity.

You don't want Jojo to know.

You don't want to have to have this conversation fifty times with each individual person.

You don't want Kakyoin to know.

...It makes you sad to talk about.

[mylegacy]

Jojo knows. But I'm not the one who told him.

They're my family. You know? We never had anything but each other. No one should speak their names without my permission. No one should take that away from me. What I am - what I chose to be and the mistakes I made, those are mine, no one else's.

It makes me sad. I miss them. But they're mine, and I'm theirs. This is the only way I can protect them here, by keeping them from being someone else's sad story. It's the Zeppelis' story. Not the Joestars'.

[starmark]

...That's

[...]

I understand. I actually...understand something a lot better now, than I did a minute ago. Not about you, just about...family. Stories.

Thank you. For that, and for trusting me far enough to tell me yours.

[mylegacy]

Yeah.

Family is important. You know? I think sometimes I don't say it right, or explain it right, and it comes out sounding like pride and nothing else. But that's not all it is.

[starmark]

You resent it when the Zeppelis are made into the sidekicks of the Joestars, right?

It's insulting, taking your story and pretending like it's just a subplot of ours.

[mylegacy]

Yes.

We've sacrificed. My grandfather died. My father died. I died. Kakyoin

We matter.

[starmark]

I think my mom feels like that sometimes, too, even as a Joestar.

Too much Joestar, not enough Kujo. Like Joestar is the only thing that matters, and not the family she chose for herself.

...

I'm not trying to say anything by that. I don't have the right to say anything, period. But I think I've seen what you're describing in other places, too, that's what I mean.

[mylegacy]

It doesn't bother me.

Right now, anyway. It might if you said it to me tomorrow. Right now things aren't terrible, so I can handle it.