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buongiorno! sorry i missed you; i'll happily get back to you as soon as i'm done with whatever business i'm on. leave a message!

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[He makes a good point, and Giorno smiles. And then he makes a stupid point, and Giorno smiles wider, calm and beatific, and clasps his hands together in front of him, bangs drifting in and out of his face.]

There's a saying . . . you wouldn't know it, but I'll teach you something easy before we get to the more difficult lessons.

[Gold Experience shifts, arms draped over Giorno's shoulders, pulls itself closer - disappears.]

Il serpe tra' fiori e l'erba giace.

[And there it is again, appearing all staccato, before him rather than behind him, still as Star Platinum now, posture relaxed and loose. Giorno tips his head slightly to one side.]

Snakes among sweet flowers do creep.

[So look before you leap.]

[This might actually be fun.]

[Oh. Disappearing acts, is that what we're doing now. Well, that's fine; there's one of his own he can answer with — but, as with all magician's tricks, it's really only impressive if you don't know how it's done.

Or at least, if you don't see the way the moving pieces work to make it happen.]

How about you brush up on your Japanese. Let's start with kakatte koi.

[But as he finishes the words, the easy vowels that come in Kakyoin's inflection instead of his own, his mouth keeps moving over the subsequent syllables of a familiar command, and Star Platinum stops the world.

He knows, already, that he'll have to use this sparingly. Maybe tonight is about finding his own limits for The World, too — limits he desperately needs to know, to use it with any real tactical effect. How many, for what duration. If he needs to recharge afterward, how long is that delay. He needs to know; it needs to become his. It needs to become second nature, inside and out, or it's nothing.

For now, he has five seconds, and he's not tired. So he uses them wisely, dispatching Star Platinum to follow him and sweep over his tracks in the sand as he runs at Giorno, catching him easily up and moving him back a few feet from where he'd previously stood. Not far; just enough to make a statement, to change his view enough that he'll notice, and have perhaps a moment of hesitation from trying to re-orient himself.

With his remaining time, he veers off to one side, just barely out of Giorno's peripheral vision in his new position, and brings Star Platinum to guard against a hair-trigger attack that he suspects will be coming the instant that —]

Soshite toki wa ugokidasu.

[— Time resumes.]

[There are many reasons why people underestimate Giorno Giovanna.]

[Many of the reasons are deliberately crafted. He chooses to look, speak, move a certain way; these happen to be the ways that come most naturally to him, for the most part, and he knows how to utilize his skills to best effect. But the fact is that things would likely be much easier for him, at least in the world he's chosen to inhabit, if he were more like his father: physically imposing, strong, visibly dangerous.]

[He's not. He chooses not to fight that particular reality by clumsily mimicking machismo, a concept which he finds ridiculous; rather, he embodies grace and delicacy because he is graceful and he is delicate, but so is a spider's web, and they are designed to bend and flex and stretch but never break.]

[He's young. He's a boy. He knows this - now better than ever, after what happened in the mirrors, after what he's just learned about himself and his tendency to take on too much. He isn't always good at balance, and sometimes his judgment isn't the best. But if there's one thing, one thing that separates him from Dio Brando--]

[It's the way he chooses to react to the world.]

[The hair-trigger attack doesn't come. Instead, when time resumes, he reaches out for Gold Experience, who is there immediately to support him in the half-second of disorientation before he is able to stand on his own. And as he does--]

[(The other thing people forget about Giorno Giovanna: he is strong, but he is not only strong. He has the power of life at his fingertips, but he has the mind of a tactician, a general, an emperor. His goal is the preservation of civilization, not its destruction. Life and rebirth, not death, not suffering, not pain. Peace.)]

[--what comes is calm, defensive, well-planned (because what is his Requiem if not the ultimate defense? what is his calling if not a defense against man's worst nature? what would he spend his free time on if not coming up with solutions to worst-case scenarios?), a wall of braided vines sprouting in a circle around him, reaching for the sky. If Izabel were here, she would start at how similar they are to the vines that threatened them in Wonderland.]

[But she's not. It's just them.]

Naranc--

[Gold Experience Requiem looks at him, and he remembers: Narancia isn't here. Aerosmith isn't here. He's fighting alone, so he has to win alone. And that means . . .]

[The wall of vines moves forward, all in a rush, to swallow Jotaro up.]

[It makes a memory twinge briefly in the back of his mind, the sight of a towering mass of something advancing on him. There are a few things that save it, that keep it only a twinge; one is that he's upright, instead of on his back, and the other is that he has Star Platinum in front of him.

(A third is that time is moving. He is the only one here who can control time. Time Stop is his, and he'll prove it again and again until he believes it.)

It's reasonable to assume that this is Giorno's answer; he's built himself a wall to act as a shield (while he recovers? probably, he assumes; it'd be disorienting to anyone) and now that wall is advancing like an offensive, but they're vines. He's buying himself time to move.

That's fine. And frankly, Jotaro's a little relieved. Giorno has every reason to be unnerved by his use of The World, maybe even almost as much as Kakyoin, but he hasn't turned pale and screamed. He doubts he could've continued the fight, honestly, if he had.

But the fight has continued, and that means the next step is to show this wall why it's not going to be that easy.]

Star Platinum!

[His Stand surges forward with a mighty roar, fists winding back for a brutal, lightning-fast attack rush —]

...!!

[— that blows him back thirty feet and lands him on his back in the sand, blood beginning to pour from his nose as not-inconsequential explosions of pain begin to go off beneath the flesh of his torso and face.]

[It would be easy to hide in his little circle of plant life, to direct his attacks from within and keep himself protected. It would also be stupid. He isn't operating a fighter jet or a submarine, he's not piloting anything. He's fighting, fighting someone he cares about, so it's his duty to ensure precision, to fight to the best of his abilities until one or the other of them is done.]

[He doesn't waste time imagining who it'll be, either. They'll know soon enough.]

[What he does do is push through the vines like they're nothing, coming to stop in front of Star Platinum in the sand. It's not a move of bravado, since Gold Experience is absolutely still standing between them and just to one side, but he does look up at Jotaro's Stand a little apologetically.]

Mi dispiace, Star. [And to Jotaro:] I tried to warn you. You should know better than to make me repeat myself.

[But that's it. Monologuing's for amateurs (Padre), and he's got work to do.]

[Gold Experience moves without a word, a sound, a look, just moves. Not as fast as The World, of course, because The World moves outside time, but fast all the same - for Star, not Jotaro, which was another reason for the pardon begged, because - well.]

[The blow doesn't actually need to connect, really; it's more a movement through the air, an effect on the outside versus the inside. He can't stop time, no, but he can accelerate life just for a little while, and life is all in the mind.]

[Time moves forward. The mind rushes. Everything that is felt is felt more.]

[He stands framed against the surf, and watches, and waits.]

[What is he d—

oingwhatishedoingithurtsgetupgetupgetuphe'scominggetupgetupithurtsStargethimStargethimithurtsithurtswhydoesithurtthevinesithadtobethevineshehitthevinesandithithimselfithurtsithurtssothat'swhathisattackrushfeelslikeithurtshelpStargethimStargethimgethimgethimgethimgethimgetupgetupgetupnonononononononohurtsithurtsithurtsgetupgetupJotarogetupgetupgetupyou'renotdoneyetgetupgetupgetupgetup

He claws weakly at the sand, but his fingers...don't...

nononononononogethimgethimgethimgethimStarhelpmeStarhelpmeStarhelpmeStarhelpmeStarHELPMESTARHELPMESTARHELPMESTARSTARSTARSTARSTARHELPMESTAR

The sight he makes is, quite possibly, nothing short of horrifying to watch. His mind is racing, synapses firing, impulses being directed to all of his limbs, and they're too fast, his body can't keep up and he jerks and convulses, scrabbling at grains of sand that he can't hold on to, that slide through his fingers like the control he's trying to keep over his limbs and he can't —

HELPMESTARHELPMESTARHELPMESTARHELPMESTARHELPMESTARHELPMESTARHELPMESTARHELPMESTARHELPMESTARHELPMESTAR

— He can't.

But he can't stop a bullet, either.

There is, in the end, no command. There is no order, no strategy, no direction. Jotaro does nothing but suffers.

Star Platinum, on the other hand, lunges and swings of his own volition, his face twisted with violence and all signs of recognizing his former pudding friend forgotten as he strikes back at Gold Experience, motivated by nothing except self-preservation and that of his user, understanding nothing save that Gold Experience did this, and therefore it has to pay.]

[It's horrible. But it's not horrifying.]

[Very few things horrify Giorno anymore. He sees Jotaro writhing on the sand and he thinks, He's hurting, and another part of him thinks, He asked to be hurt, and another part thinks, Is that a good reason to give it to him?]

[Yes, but also no. Yes, because he made a promise. No, because Jotaro is not his enemy.]

[. . . But he made a promise. And he believes - he really does believe - that Jotaro would not allow himself to use Giorno as a tool for his own martyrdom. That was not the goal of this evening. The goal of this evening was a fight.]

[So he'll fight to win.]

[Star Platinum attacks, pure animalistic violence, and Giorno - beams, because that's him, that's his friend, that's his family, that's Jotaro and his beautiful soul hurting on the ground and fighting to the end with everything he's got. They really aren't so different, are they? They both suffer, and they both fight. They endure.]

[Giorno beams, and Gold Experience Requiem smiles, too, a soft and secret smile like it's just heard an inside joke, and it looks human and, yes, horrifying, and catches a blow on the jaw that skids and impacts, jolts through into Giorno and makes his teeth clack together, and he spits out a tooth onto the sand, still beaming, and this time, this time, they're both ready.]

[The next blow is thrown, and--]

[Reset.]

[Reset.]

[Reset.]

[As for where the next part comes from, in all the chaos, it's hard to say. But it does come, angry and joyful all at once, because if there's an animal in Giorno, there are a few moments when he wears it on his sleeve.]

[Mudamudamuda!]

[If there was one thing, one thing, that could've completely and utterly shut everything that was going on in Jotaro Kujo's head down in an instant, it was the sound of a battle cry he thought for certain, for certain, that he'd never in his life hear again.

And yet there it is.

And this — this is too close. This is more than enough to bring it all rushing back in an instant, only made worse by the pain still exploding under his skin, only amplified by the effects of Life Shot still working. It's dark he's on the ground something's going to happen someone's right there Star is throwing punches that do nothing there's nothing it's useless it's useless it's mudamudamudamuda —

Even the memory comes too fast.

Too fast.

Star.

In a flash, Star Platinum disappears, leaving Jotaro alone and still writhing on the sand. But gradually, the jerkiness of his movements slows — and oddly, so does the rise and fall of his chest, rendering him almost perfectly still for a brief span of time.

He's a sitting duck, but he doesn't move a muscle — until at last his hands slide, just a fraction, and his muscles shift one deliberate twitch.

In the next instant, Star Platinum is back to guard him again, this time with his fists at the ready on the defense instead of attacking outright, and Jotaro's chest is back to rising and falling as he resumes his jerky, uncontrolled spasms on the sand.]

[If he were fighting an enemy, he wouldn't be paying attention to the things he's paying attention to now. He's willing to go almost all the way in this, but this is not a fight to the death. It's not a fight to prove anything to each other. It's to prove things to themselves.]

[And so he is paying attention to things. The movements of Jotaro's limbs, because he knows what's normal in the middle of this chaos and what's not. The way his eyes move, whether or not they roll back in his head. His own breathing, so that he will know before his body does when he's about to panic.]

[To Jotaro's breathing. Because he remembers when someone else important to him stopped breathing, when his chest went still, when he ceased. And began. And ceased again.]

[Jotaro stops breathing, and he - doesn't scream, because he never does. But the cry in his throat dies instantly, and what comes out instead is a thin whine, I didn't mean to not again not again I didn't--]

[But he didn't. He didn't. And he realizes, as Jotaro's heart starts again, that this wasn't his fault at all. Whatever just happened, whatever stupid accidental common thread was just plucked, whatever note of horror played in Jotaro's mind, he didn't do it, and that means.]

[That means.]

[That means that Gold Experience disappears as he stalks forward across the sand, murder in his eyes and his trembling hands, that he is not Giorno Giovanna right now, not a frightened little boy with a dream and a fear of losing everything, but someone capable of taking not only what he needs but what is owed to him, and the world owes him a great deal. Right now, the world owes him Jotaro Kujo's life, and so it's Don Giovanna who pushes past Jotaro Kujo's fighting spirit like it's nothing, looks at Star Platinum like he's a disobedient subordinate who ought to know better, and kneels at the side of this stupid, broken idiot who's broken his promise.]

[Gold Experience's hand hovers translucently over his, like a thick golden glove; then the two of them, boy and Stand, rest their palms over Jotaro's heart, and pull back Life Shot, and heal him.]

[And it fucking hurts.]

[And when it's done, Giorno jerks Jotaro by the chin to face him, holds him steady for a moment, and slaps him with all the force of himself and his Stand combined.]

How dare you.

[This is wrong, it's all wrong.

One instant the world is spinning, racing too fast, the entire universe rushing toward its endpoint to start over again, and then suddenly it's gone. The explosions of pain are gone, but they're back quickly enough and he's too disoriented at first to explain why. His nose was bleeding and now it's not, but his face feels like it's on fire anyway and Dio is looking at him, low to the ground and holding his chin and accompanied by a flash of gold —

This is familiar, too, and what registers is: he's close enough, I can hit him, and so he does.

The lucky thing is, it's only Jotaro who's swinging. Star Platinum's crushing blows are absent as his Stand lingers behind, confused and disoriented himself because with no orders forthcoming his duty is to protect, but in a situation like this he can't be certain what protection is. So in the end, they end up trading blows, one for one save that one of them doesn't come with the force of a Stand behind it, and it's barely even connected when he orders Star Platinum to stop time for the second time tonight, and feels it burn as everything once again stills to a halt.

This time, though, he simply eases himself back down into the sand, and stares up at the sky overhead where it's beginning to dot with stars.

He can think again.

What the hell did Dio do...that left him so he couldn't think?

It's so quiet in the world of stopped time. It used to bother him, the quiet; on some level it still does, but — no one's talking. That's nice. It's just quiet, and the waves ought to be lapping at the shore but they're not but they will be soon, and that's fine.

...No one's talking? But Dio's right th—

...

Oh.

He reaches up, absently, and catches hold of one of his opponent's forelocks, gently twisting it into a coil and setting it back against his forehead. That's better. That's the way it's supposed to be, isn't it...

Time's going to run out, but that's...okay, too. Five seconds to breathe was enough. He should move, probably, but he won't. Not yet, at least, because there's still no telling if this is the end of their duel or just a temporary suspension of their maneuvers, and Giorno had something to say to him so he should probably...let him do that.

He's got something to say too, doesn't he...?

And time resumes.]

I don't want to beat it.

[He forces the words out in a hurry, determined to get them out in the first place before he loses his opportunity, because he has a feeling he might if he's not fast enough.]

I can beat it but don't use it again. I don't want to. I don't want to.

[It's a good instinct, because--]

[Well, because a lot of things. Because when Giorno goes on a tear, it's hard as hell to stop him once he's started. Because the blows exchanged have made him think (inevitably) of his stepfather, and that's made him feel helpless even though he isn't, and that's made him angrier. Because he can tell, once time resumes, that it's stopped, and he hates that, that Jotaro feels the need to take a break from him, as though he's a real enemy.]

[So he opens his mouth to yell more, and then - just that quiet voice, getting quieter.]

[Uncertain, he glances up at Star Platinum as if for confirmation (of what? he doesn't even know that), and then presses his lips together and tucks his hair behind his ear, leans in to brush Jotaro's hair away from his forehead, anger not gone but combined with something else, something softer and infinitely more vulnerable.]

I don't want to watch you kill yourself.

[There's been too much of that. Too much. He presses his lips together, and then - takes Jotaro's hand in both of his, clasps it tightly, rests his forehead against their joined fingers.]

Tell me what, exactly. Tell me, and - tell me what I did that scared you. If I don't know, I can't keep from doing it again.

You don't have to do anything you don't want to, Jotaro, this - this isn't that kind of fight.

You did something to my head.

[Even now, he can't really put into words what "something" had been; a power of Gold Experience's, obviously, but working out what had been done had been nearly impossible by definition because everything was going too fast to try to keep up with it, and all of a sudden everything was too much. No strategy. No real capacity to act against it. If Star wasn't capable of acting on his own, would he even be here right now?

...

Wait. What?

Of course he'd be here right now —]

Wasn't gonna kill myself. I just had to be able to think long enough to tell Star what to do.

[And he almost could, hadn't he? There'd been that one second when everything had slowed back down again. One second is all he would've needed to get Time Stop off, and then he could've gotten away from the golden monster coming at him with a street sign in his hands —

...

Wait. Giorno?]

. . .

[His brow furrows slightly and his mouth comes open in preparation; there was another question in there, too, what did I do that scared you, and he's almost ready to answer it with a question of his own: who told you about mudamudamuda, was it...Jonathan?

But he doesn't, because in the second after he thinks it, he knows — no, he's got that wrong, too. Saying something like that, believing that as a possibility — now that really would warrant what Giorno had spit at him earlier, I can't believe you'd think so little of me. There's going all-out, but deliberately using even something like that against him, as a battle strategy?

It's not that kind of fight.

So he lets the notion die on his tongue, and after a minute he ventures what feels like a more vague, less likely possibility, but one that puts his faith in Giorno instead of withdrawing it over something as patently stupid as two idiot boys bending the universe around them in the sand.]

Muda. Muda muda, he'd yell it when he was about to kill someone. Mostly me. Is...that when I freaked out?

[He gives Jotaro a look that's somehow both sour and tearful, jerks his chin towards the rise and fall of the other's chest.]

I saw you. You did something. You stopped. Don't you think I know what that looks like? Don't you think I know?

[Him of all people, so afraid to let those he loves slip away into death that he nails them back to the world of the living, holds them to him with an iron grip - he knows.]

[Just like he knows, somehow, right before Jotaro asks him a question in return. Is that when I freaked out? And the thought of it, this unlikely and absurd similarity, it's almost enough to make him laugh, not a laugh laugh but a desperate whine of a noise, for lack of anything better to do.]

[When he was about to kill someone. Mostly me.]

[Mutely, he nods. And it takes him a little while longer to come up with words in response, so he presses his forehead to their clasped hands, then his lips, eyes squeezed tight shut, trying so hard not to start trembling.]

I didn't know.

[He shakes his head, blinking rapidly, then squeezing his eyes shut again. Freaked out, like it was nothing.]

I didn't know. Jotaro, if I don't know, how am I supposed to protect you?

[From himself, from the echoes of Dio, from bad memories, from being so scared that he feels he has to stop his heart to survive. From everyday bad things, which Jotaro is too good for - from everything. That's all he wants: to protect him from everything.]

Edited (GRIP NOT GRIN) 2015-11-04 19:32 (UTC)

...Because I didn't want to lose Giorno, from telling you how not to be Dio.

[God, do they ever look alike. Moreso now than ever, where both times he's been laid out and exhausted and it's always just the two of them, isn't it. It's always just the two of them, stopped time and restarted consequences, and he's always alone with it.

It's...something, though. Don't you think I know what that looks like? How out of place that sounds, because if Giorno were someone else that would've been exactly the point — looking dead, looking finished, the perfect cover to draw in an unsuspecting viper just close enough to smash his head in.

But Giorno cares. No one who cares has ever seen him do that.

Everybody...everybody would kill him if they saw him do that, wouldn't they? Kakyoin — christ, he wouldn't walk for a month if Kakyoin saw him do that. Jonathan would...shake him until his head rattled; Bruno, Nanna Lisa —

...His mom's not half a world away anymore. She's not dying if he doesn't push himself to his absolute limits and beyond. And he doesn't believe that Giorno would tell her (tattle on him, hadn't they joked about that once, don't be a snitch or I'll never trust you again), there's a moment where he envisions it, and shakes all over from the chill and the weight of the block of ice that drops into the pit of his stomach at the look on her face.

Jesus. Maybe Giorno is right — maybe he does need protecting, after all. Not from Dio, or his memories; from himself.

...And that makes all the difference, somehow, because if it were Dio or his memories he'd have the right to say no, that it's overstepping, that it's his to shoulder and conquer — but if he's the menace threatening himself, then Giorno has every right to stop him. Especially if he needs it.

Sometimes you can't tell when you need it; you need that person on the outside looking in, who can tell you so.

...It really does go both ways with them, doesn't it.]

...But that hurt you from trying not to hurt you.

[He closes his eyes, breathing in slowly.]

I did that once before. Not for the same reasons. He thought I was dead, but to make sure he listened for my heartbeat. Gio, he would've killed me if he'd heard one, I had to. He was going to cut my head off and I had to wait until he got close enough for Star to hit him.

[His brow furrows slightly; he frowns, shaking his head a little as he grits his teeth in the barest hint of frustration — probably with himself.]

I don't want our fight to stop like this. We're not done yet, I'm not done. I want to fight you, not ghosts. We're not done yet, if I'm a wreck and you're crying...if we stop here we'll never get out. I'll never get out.

I can't do it if it's anyone but you. So...I'm in your hands. If you say we're done — but if you say I've got another chance, I'm going to get up and keep fighting. Because I get it, now. What it means to see something and chase after it with everything you've got. Maybe I was wrong before...maybe I am fighting myself, too. But...that better me is waiting at the end of this. So please don't make me stop now.

. . . Jotaro.

[He's looking at him steadily, watching him, measuring him - clearly upset, with tears clinging to his lashes, but not distraught, not despondent. It's undeniable that he does better when he has someone to take care of, and that's part of why he's able to hang on so strongly now, but at the same time, this isn't just about Jotaro. This is about demanding for himself as well, finally, after weeks and months of allowing it to slide.]

[So he squeezes Jotaro's hand and shakes his head, and they're thinking along the same lines, almost exactly: him imagining Kakyoin's face, or Jonathan's, if that came out and they weren't expecting it. How much that would hurt them - maybe just as much, maybe more.]

I won't lie to you and say I never wanted to know the similar things because I wanted to make sure I wasn't him, or even because I was curious, but . . . you have to know I care about you, don't you? You and Kakyoin and Jonathan, and your mother . . . I'm not the only one connected to him. In a lot of ways I'm the one least connected to him, and at the same time the most capable of making stupid, accidental mistakes that leave you like this.

When you hurt, it hurts me too. It hurts me and Kakyoin and everyone. When you hurt because of something I did that could've been avoided, I feel awful, like it was me who stopped your heart. So please don't . . . hide things from me anymore. I won't put myself in your business, or ask for details or elaboration if you don't want me to. Just please help me to not hurt you.

[And then for a few long moments he's quiet, thinking about everything that Jotaro's said. He thinks, and he looks out over the sand at the surf beating quietly against the edge of the beach, and he tries to figure out . . . can they do this? Can he do this? It's not a matter of giving Jotaro another chance, it's a matter of ensuring that they push to their limits, not past them.]

[Please don't make me stop now.]

[He exhales slowly and closes his eyes, tilting his head up; the moon pulls the tide around and beams through his eyelids, and he thinks, yes, he's pretty sure - he's pretty sure they can do this. And if they can't, they'll pick each other up again once they've fallen down.]

. . . Nobody's called me Gio since I got here.

[With a soft laugh, he turns, opens his eyes, looks at Jotaro levelly, his gaze clear and calm.]

Trish would call me an idiot for doing this. But I think you're right. I think that we need to do this, and we can do this. And I think that you're amazing, and I wish you knew it just by knowing it like I do, but if getting through this is what you need to see it, then we'll get through this.

You have to promise, though. Promise to talk to me, for real, and don't let me cheat just because I'm ignorant of something that's going to hurt you.

[When you see something about yourself that you hate, you kill it. But Kakyoin...I can't do that. I can't stand to pull out and throw away any more of me, or there won't be anything left.

He'd said that, hadn't he? Right in the beginning, early on, when he hadn't wanted to talk about it and Kakyoin had tried to make him, and he'd gotten frustrated and bristly and upset because he didn't want to be needled about it, didn't want to have to confess anything to Kakyoin of all people, because he could barely stand to look at him even then from the guilt and the shame of knowing what he was carrying.

...Even back then, had Kakyoin seen that he — no, what a stupid thing to ask. Of course Kakyoin had seen it. Kakyoin knows him better than he knows himself, better than anyone.

And it's quiet, but a quiet epiphany is still an epiphany, and he doesn't say eureka but it's the same feeling, like a fog parting to reveal a horizon that's always been there, whether you ever knew it or not.]

...I don't care enough about myself, do I.

[What a new and mildly bewildering concept. People hurt when he does things to himself. Even when it's for their benefit. Even if it means that no one's getting hurt except him. Even if it's so clearly the better option than ever being the person having to watch someone else get hurt ever again.

...

So. He...cares about them so much...that he puts them into that position instead...?

...Jesus, he's going to have to apologize to, like. Everyone he's ever spoken to. Ever.]

...Whenever I fight Kakyoin, we use codewords. Usually my mom's name. Because I scare him, and the thought of hurting him scares me, and we need to know how to tell each other to stop —

[And for just a second, just one, something crumples in his expression, and his voice comes breathy and shaking.]

God. I scare the hell out of him...

[He sucks in a breath, dragging his hand over his eyes, and leaves his forearm lying across them for a few seconds while he pulls himself together again.]

...It's not the muda muda, so much. It's not being able to move. It's when something's coming at me and I can't move. I was on the ground and my body didn't work, that's what it was. If I hadn't already been like that, I don't think it would've gotten me the way it did. I thought if I could slow everything down, I'd be able to move, and I could get away.

I'm sorry. It doesn't change that I did it, but I don't think I would've if I could've— ...no. I'm just sorry. I fucked up, and I'm sorry.

[He lowers his arm, blinking bleary eyes up at Giorno.]

Pick something that'll make you stop, if you hear it, and tell me. My grandma's name is Suzie Q, can you say that in a hurry if you have to?

[Poor Jotaro.]

[The thought comes to him unbidden as Jotaro speaks, springing less from a place of pity and more from the deepest, most impossible groundwater stream of sympathy. He knows the truth of this, and he forgives Jotaro for it, and . . . so it's silly, isn't it, not to forgive himself. Talk about hypocrisy. Kakyoin wasn't kidding.]

[He squeezes Jotaro's fingers and smiles weakly, nodding with his head tipped slightly to one side.]

It's possible that that's a genetic trait.

[So. Me, too, in other words. And me, too to the rest of it, too, because he knows, he understands, that being stuck like that is horrifying. That's why he used it - because Jotaro told him not to hold back, with no qualifiers, and so he went as hard as he possibly could, until all of a sudden it was a thousand times too much.]

I understand. I do, and I'm not angry anymore, I just - I don't want to be the person to hurt someone like I just hurt you. Not anymore. You know that, I know you do.

And - when, with Diavolo, it wasn't - the same, but there was that feeling of being frozen while time went on around you - things were happening and you couldn't - so. It's a fear that makes sense. I won't do it again.

[Because they're going to fight for all they're worth, but they're going to take care of each other, too. Those are the new rules.]

[He blinks slowly, not at the name suggestion but at the concept of . . . having a grandma. And then he comprehends and nods and thinks for a moment, and - there's only one answer, of course there is.]

Narancia.

[Narancia. The dead one, just like Bruno and Abbacchio. The one who didn't like going to school, who fought a lot. The one who Giorno called for in that first instant when time resumed, when in the blink of an eye the world around him had changed and yet he didn't once lash out the way someone else might've.

It's a little funny, maybe. He has a feeling Giorno picked Narancia in the same way the he'd almost picked Kakyoin, himself — and the only reason why he hadn't is because "Kakyoin" would feel too much like manipulation, and "Noriaki" is too important to gamble on this, and "Tenmei" isn't his to give.]

You said his name, the first time I stopped time.

[...Which. Raises another important point, actually.]

...Something about missing time, right? That's the same reason I just moved you, instead of hitting you.

[He slides his free arm back, pushing his elbow against the sand to help prop himself back up into a sitting position — visible proof of the way the conversation and the passage of time are both acting to help pull himself together.]

Yes. He--

[And then he hesitates - not, ironically enough, because he doesn't want to talk about Narancia, especially to Jotaro, but because what he's about to say probably says a lot about his battle strategy, and he's still very much invested in winning this fight. Still, it's an important thing to know about Narancia, he decides after a moment, and takes a deep breath, and continues.]

His Stand. Aerosmith, it was able to detect people breathing from far away. So I thought - after a certain point I always just called for him automatically, to check and see how close an enemy was. He was always watching over us.

[But I couldn't watch over him.]

[Is that what he regrets most? Sometimes it seems like it is. Sometimes it seems like choosing one worst thing is impossible, but other times he knows in the deepest part of himself that Narancia was the one out of all of them who least deserved to die, who was least prepared for it.]

[He sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose and then just - talks, lets whatever wants to come out come out.]

You could always see him learning. He acted like he hated it but he was really good at it, naturally much cleverer than he thought he was. And he was the last one to decide to come with us, to help Trish, to kill Diavolo. Maybe he shouldn't have - I don't know. I just miss him. He was in my body when he died.

So I know if you say his name I'll know to pay attention, like he always paid attention, and learn, the way he always worked hard to learn, and not do the wrong thing again.

[He takes his hands back and folds them across his knees, looking tired.]

Yeah. Yes. You were more careful than I was. I just never thought of it as time, or stopping something, it was always more adding . . . but I feel like I should have realized.

...That's really something, isn't it. When you're so in sync with someone else that you just...

[...have no problem stabbing someone in the face, because you know that even from across the entire damn town, your partner has roped the asshole's Stand in his tentacles and pulled it free, covered your back without even being there.]

Mmmm.

[He's the first to get to his feet, then, and he does, shaking loose sand off his clothes before pivoting and offering his hand to Giorno, open-palmed.]

When we're done, tell me about him, okay? But for now...I've still got to figure out how to beat your vines. And I want to see if you can work out the way I've realized, how you could break my Time Stop.

...You wanted my promise, so I'll give it to you now. I'll treat his name with the worth you gave it. I won't sacrifice myself instead of using it.

[The moment when he hooks back into the fight is visible and easy to pinpoint: it's the moment Jotaro says the way I've realized, how you could break my Time Stop. Jotaro's standing above him, towering really, and he looks up at him with eyes wide as saucers, and - really, it's shocking how unsubtle it is, how blatantly expressive, but with Jotaro it's easier, it's safer, it's better, it's fine.]

[He smiles. Grins. Smirks.]

[A challenge. He can meet a challenge.]

[He's on his feet in a second, bouncing backwards on his toes like he weighs nothing, a wisp on the wind, playful as a kitten. Gold Experience blooms beside him, and it's not in constant motion anymore, nor is it holding all the shy tension in its body that Giorno doesn't show like usual; instead it moves in perfect sync with him, only the opposite way, so that as Giorno hops backwards, Gold Experience slips forward, chin tipped up, a challenge in return.]

[What Narancia loved best of all - besides Bruno's approval, and the love of his family - was a fight.]

Stop talking! You talk too much! Come on.

...That might be the first time in my life anybody's ever said I talk too much.

[And — he can feel himself getting more and more exhausted from the repeated use of The World, it's settling in now in a way he hadn't precisely expected but that still makes sense, but this time it's important and effective so he uses it just long enough to accomplish two things. One is to retreat back across the sand to a proper fighting distance, a moment of journey that to the naked eye would look like he'd moved in no time at all, but the other comes before that; he scoops up a handful of sand and tosses it into the air over their heads before he vacates, leaving it where it'll shower down over Giorno and Gold Experience in the instant when time resumes.

Narancia.

He'll try to take good care of your boss for you, kid. And...

And Grandma, that boss thinks your grandson is amazing, and he should try to remember that, shouldn't he.

Time resumes.]

Let's go, Giorno!

[Time resumes - and sand falls into Giorno's hair, dusts across his shoulders, across Gold Experience's too. His Stand twitches, startled, and he shakes his head like a dog to get clean.]

That's a dirty trick, Jotaro!

[But he's laughing all the same - how could he not? - laughing even as Gold Experience shifts forward and vines twine up from the ground to twist around his ankles and lift him bodily off the ground. It'll take him more than the five seconds of Time Stop to get free, that's for sure, and in the meantime Giorno's advancing, grinning wide with his hair blown away from his face, giddy and excited.]

But you're not the only one who can play dirty.

[And of all things — implausibly, unexpectedly, impossibly — the vines ensnare him and lift him off the ground, and it's not even that it's unexpected; it's the familiarity that makes him laugh right back, quieter and far more subdued than Giorno's, but there just the same.]

Hierophant does this trick better.

[Okay. When he'd hit the vines the last time, he'd been blown back — so, attacking them at all poses a problem. He'll have to take damage in order to free himself from them, unless...

Briskly, he gauges the distance he has left between Giorno and himself — enough? He'll have to stop time at the last possible instant — and draws Star Platinum back inside him in a rush, urging his Stand to manifest around his limbs like ghostly armor, and trying to force the grip of the vines to expand in compensation, to keep their tight grip even around Star's naturally larger frame.

It's the same way, he thinks, that escape artists free themselves from bonds — by tensing up while the knots are tied and then relaxing when it's time to escape, a minuscule amount of room to wriggle is created.

The question is, will it be enough, when added to stopped time for the sake of getting loose?

There's only one way to find out, so it's worth a try.]

I'll tell Kakyoin you said so.

[And he will, too. Maybe later, when everything's less fraught and immediate, but he absolutely will.]

[In the meantime - Giorno's coming close, closer, not so quickly that he can't watch Jotaro calculate. It's really fascinating, now that he takes the time to look, because the minutiae of his expressions are so subtle, but he's beginning to know them now, and - look at him, look at him go.]

[The thing is, though, that big gestures only do so much, and Giorno knows that, so . . . this is a way to buy time, absolutely; to wear out Time Stop, for sure; to see what Jotaro can do when he has a little wiggle room, of course. And he's not disappointed, but he's also not being quite still. One of the vines, a very thin and unobtrusive one, sneaks up while Giorno's approaching and Jotaro's wiggling around with Star Platinum pushing against the main body of plant matter and peels one of the aglets off of a shoelace, then absconds with it and disappears.]

[Well. Appears to disappear.]

[By the time he's close enough to see the sharp furrow of concentration forming between Jotaro's brows, he feels prepared to make his next feint, and sends a tree-trunk-wide vine snapping forward towards Jotaro's face. Better stop time, friend, if you don't want to break your nose.]

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