sleepytimejunction | electric tapestry

[Showed up...? the medic repeats, brow furrowing, but some of the tension does seem to ease out of her as she reflexively glances back at the empty air. She squints at him, at the hole in his throat, and seems to be thinking.

Then, she glances down, like she's taking stock of the width of the room, and how far it is to the space where Abbacchio was pointing, before finally regarding him again.

Well — is it yours? she offers finally. Tell it to do something. Um...pick up Aiko's pencil. Can you tell it to do that?]

[Didn't the other guy asked this thing something similar? Are you his? What the fuck is that supposed to mean, anyway?]

Hey. You. [Abbacchio is glaring at this thing.] You heard her. Stop what you're doing and get that pencil.

[The replay stops finally to his relief, its form shifting back into whatever it's supposed to be. It's sad, but it's somewhat unsettling base appearance is largely preferable to what it looked like before.

The lanky purple thing crouches down, picking up the pencil, tilting its head and looking at it. It approaches, leaning down and offering it to the medic.]

It, uh. ...It's trying to give it back to you.

[Oh, it's all right, I can see the pencil. See?

She reaches out by way of demonstration, taking it from where it is (to her eyes) floating in midair, and as she does so, the other medic returns in a hurry with Jotaro in tow, looking breathless and harried.

It's almost comical, the way that Jotaro takes up essentially the entire doorway with the breadth of his shoulders, but he peers inside, looking from the man on the ground to the medic nearby, and then to the now-returned slender purple Stand before glancing back to the medic that came to fetch him.]

It's fine. That one's not an enemy.

[O-Oh... Aiko whimpers, still a little pale-faced. I just thought — when he said there was something in here with us —]

I know what you thought. It's fine. Is he well enough to talk?

[Um...yes! Yes, of course, the other medic says, and the two of them hurriedly get their things together and make way as Jotaro steps into the room and they depart it, leaving the two men alone again.]

...Your throat healed over. Does it still hurt?

[Not an enemy. Okay. So they really could have been expecting something horrible, but only this big guy can see it. Why?

Clearly, he has the answers.

Abbacchio shoves himself to his feet, brushing off the purple thing who reaches out to help.]

I'm fine. But I still have no idea what the hell is going on.

You can see this. Can't you? [He points at it.] And there was another one you called Star.

I can see it. It's soft purple and sleek with tall boots and a sort of hood around its neck. It doesn't have a mouth, and there's something like a timer set into its forehead.

[He recites the description, sort of matter-of-factly, then sidesteps a little to make room for Star Platinum to appear at his side, bigger and bulkier than the other purple Stand in their midst.]

People who don't have one can't see them. That's why you scared the nurses. Most of the staff around here knows that there's a protocol for "strange things are happening but you can't see the source"; they thought it might've been something belonging to that guy from the warehouse, trying to finish you off.

[The more slender purple thing looks at Star with curiosity, head tilting, a delicate ringing noise humming from it for a moment. It'd probably be interesting to watch this thing, but Abbacchio is more hooked up on this guy's words right now.

He knows. He knows a lot.]

...You're someone pretty high up on the Speedwagon Foundation's food chain.

[Well. Whoops. He fucked someone important.]

Who the fuck are you? And what are these things?

[He just sort of stares at the guy a moment, then glances away and tugs the brim of his hat down over his eyes.]

...Sure.

[SO MUCH FOR ANONYMITY. And discretion. Good fucking grief.]

It's called a Stand. It's a manifestation of your fighting spirit. It's following you because it's a part of you; it doesn't have any choice but to be near you. Here — I'm going to touch it. You should be able to feel it; that's the proof you're connected.

[And, well, when he says "I", he means "Star", who flits over to the other Stand and regards it a moment before extending a thick finger and tracing it down the length of its spine, from the nape of its neck to the hollow of its back.]

[Some fighting spirit, he thinks darkly. All it does is repeat things that have already happened. His way of not being able to let go, he supposes. Maybe it really is here to punish him with his past.

Then he feels it, Star's finger running down his spine -- but it's running down the other Stand's back, and he can feel it too. Abbacchio jerks, instinctively looking behind himself, whereas his Stand makes a surprised ringing noise but doesn't retaliate. Some fucking way to test that sensation, but Abbacchio refuses to let himself look flustered.

His Stand does not hide it so much, less concerned evidently about being honest. Maybe that's why it doesn't have a mouth; Abbacchio wouldn't be so open.]

That's weird.

[He practically glares at the other man.]

I still don't know your name.

You can sort of turn it off. I can't really describe how to do it, but it can kind of mute the connection. Dull it, so it takes the brunt of the feeling and not you.

[Star circles around the other Stand, a half-apologetic look on his face, and flashes a puppy-eyed expression at his purple friend. Without any real capacity for speech, an implicit "sorry for startling you" is about the best he's going to be able to get.]

Jotaro. ...Kujo.

[He pauses.]

Or maybe you've heard the name "Joestar". That's my family.

[Abbacchio's Stand reaches out almost delicately, placing his hand over Star's forearm. No harm was done, evidently.

The admission of Jotaro's name makes Abbacchio freeze in place. Well, he thinks. Fucking Joseph Joestar's grandson was not the worst choice he's ever made, but holy shit.]

I know both those names.

Well. Shit.

[Way higher up on the food chain than he expected. Gonna just pretend it's not a big deal it's fine this is fine.]

Now what? I have this fucking thing following me around that nobody else can see.

[That may just be the most gently Star has ever been touched by another Stand; a rumbly little ora escapes him, approving, and all of a sudden he's regarding the other Stand with renewed interest, looking him over intently while their two masters talk.]

In case you forgot, I still don't know your name, either.

[HMMMMMMMMMMMM this is fine, this is totally fine.]

What do you mean, now what? It's yours. It's not going to go away. You do whatever you want with it, or do nothing with it.

[...]

Though I guess if you figure it out, you might get a better job around here than whatever you've been doing.

Yeah? What's it to you? I wasn't anybody before, and I'll be surprised if that changes suddenly tomorrow. You, though -- you're not just an important associate of the Foundation. You're bigger than that.

[He huffs, turning away, and suddenly his Stand disappears. It's not like he's going to demand that Jotaro give a damn, but more that he'd be surprised if he suddenly did.]

Then I choose nothing. It's already a pain in the ass.

And I'm right where I ought to be.

Hell are you so pissed off about all of a sudden? It's not like you're getting offered a promotion because you can ride a dick.

[Fucking hell. How has this day taken such a sharp left turn in such a short amount of time. Why is his life like this.]

...What exactly have you heard about me, anyway?

None of your fucking business is what. We had a good time, shit got weird, and neither of us wanna deal with any of that. [Maybe he's just projecting on that last part, but...

God, he's thirsty.]

A handful of things. Heard you were a giant. Heard you could be a real hardass, too. But never unfair. People are scared of you, but they respect you. That's how it is.

Actually haven't heard too much bad shit about you or your family. Sure, everybody's got rumors, but it always struck me as weird how loyal people here are.

Oh. Yeah, that goes back to the founder, I think. He was friends with my great-great-grandfather.

[Although the way he leans into the word "friends" lends just a touch of suggestion that he has his suspicions about that friendship, at least in one direction of it.]

I'm pretty sure there's a short list somewhere with my family's names on it and the title is "give these people anything they want". It's annoying. I'm not some...god, or something.

[He shakes his head.]

But they do good work here. Make people's lives better. I don't mind being a part of that.

[Good work. Make people's lives better. Wasn't that his dream once? To protect the innocent, make it better. Instead, he turned it all rotten when he let himself get weak.]

I need a fucking drink.

[He doesn't mean to let it out, but then he doesn't care.]

So what's up with the kid and the arrow?

...I've got a bottle of whiskey in my desk.

[...]

Just a thought.

[He coughs audibly, clearing his throat behind his hand, then stuffs them both into his pockets.]

We're not sure yet. He got agitated while security was hauling him off. Kept saying something about, "was it the right one". We think he might've been talking about you — or your Stand.

[The offer does... surprise him a little. He gives Jotaro a glance.]

I'm more of a wine guy. ...But whiskey will do.

[Weird. So the arrow was for a purpose. He was looking for something. A Stand.

No. Stop. This is Jotaro's problem to solve. Abbacchio doesn't need to get involved. So he shrugs, like he doesn't care.]

...Leone Abbacchio. By the way. If I'm gonna drink your whiskey, guess I'll give you that much.

Gonna have to drink it straight from the bottle. I usually do.

[Leone Abbacchio. So he's Italian. There's an irony there, probably, about his bloodline and Italians, but he's not going to get into that either for right now.]

Right now our people are going to run some tests on the arrow. See if it's a match for something we've been looking for. Well, I've been looking for. It'd be something else, if after all this time it was just...here, under our noses.

[He eyes Abbacchio, then moves slightly out of the way, making room for him to go out the door first if he wants.]

And then we need to figure out how a kid like that got his hands on it.

Long as you don't care if there's lipstick on it.

[Something he'll tidy up once he has a moment to look at himself. For now, whatever, he'll follow Jotaro to his desk and drink enough to feel less shitty about this. Or try to.]

Something like that causing people to pop out Stands. Sounds like a fucked up time. Do they all get some weird ability?

[Figure out how a kid got his hands on it. His Stand seems to... replay what's already transpired--

No. No, fuck no, he's not going down that path. He does not need to risk his own ass for this.

He goes out the door first, shoving his hands into his pockets, ignoring the ache in his ass.]

That's just part of having a Stand. They all do something. No way of knowing what they do, though, without seeing it.

[He follows along, letting the doors close behind him, and lets his fingertips just barely clip against Abbacchio's side as he passes him to lead the way toward his office.]

That's why the medics were so freaked out when you said you saw one. They thought it might've been that kid's, and they couldn't even see it, much less hope to guess what it might do to them.

[And the thing is, Abbacchio's not stupid. Any second now he's going to add up the pieces and ask, so what does yours do. Is he going to tell him, he wonders? Even now, he doesn't really know.]

You should figure out what yours does. Even if you never use it, it's a good thing to know.

[The touch is subtle, but he notices. The thing is, he needs to decide if it's nothing or not, and in the case of Jotaro he's sure it's not nothing.]

So we can't rule out that he might have one. How do we know he won't use his to escape? He got in here, after all.

[He doesn't want to know. He doesn't want to see Florentino's face again. The suggestion makes him visibly wince, his guard down for a moment before he's huffing through his nose.]

Yeah. Maybe.

We don't. But it's not like we have a lot of Stand users around here, so...the Foundation will do the best it can with what it's got.

[He shrugs, vaguely.]

You should name it, too. It makes things easier in the long run.

What, like it's a fucking pet? [Abbacchio scoffs.] I don't want it, so what's the point?

[Like he needs a name to something that's perfectly capable of reminding him of his mistakes. He's well aware enough of how fucked up he is. He runs from it every day, tries to bury it down.]

Can Stands be taken away?

...I only ever heard of it happening once.

[He looks away, finding something on the horizon that looks interesting. Ah. There, the doors to the building where his office is housed. That's interesting. He'll look at that awhile.]

A woman. She couldn't control her Stand, so it started killing her. Some Foundation operatives followed the source of her Stand back to its origin and killed it there, and she hasn't shown signs of it since.

That was an unusual circumstance. Her Stand would've killed her if the operatives hadn't uprooted it first.

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