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There are… many reasons for why he is the man he is today, with his already numb leg tingling more with a twitch of the muscle, sore core muscles from trying to stop the blood from pooling in his head too much. A situation like this is one of the reasons. And it isn’t a fond one. If he were to really think about his past, to really pay attention to the memories that he would like to pass as unimportant, he would be able to identify a good ninety-percent of said memories to be anything but fond.
Jotaro doesn’t know how long he’s been here for. He could try and tell. The sun had been a bit past straight up in the sky when he left the building for a breath of natural fresh air. And now… it’s setting. It’s not even the beginning of the sunset, no- the sun already skipped that and it’s probably a few minutes before dusk. Back home, he would be having dinner at this time, distracted from the disappearance of day and the entrance of night by the delicious meal his mom would of cooked up- no, don’t think about her. You won’t be able to get back to her if you can’t get yourself out of here.
There’s a reason he doesn’t like hospitals. All of the times he’s been can be considered part of the not fond memory category: broken bones, “tripping” down the school stairs, his grandmother on his father’s side dying, and now his grandfather and the only people he could really consider his friends.
Kakyoin with a hole in the middle of his body. Flatlined too many times to count, too many times to want to remember. He’ll live, he might even still walk with the Speedwagon Foundation’s technology.
Avdol… well, he’s in the same boat jiji had been in decades ago, except doubled. Loss of his arms up to his elbows. Knocked out from the shock and the bloodloss. Distract yourself . That makes him think about Joseph’s stories about the Pillarmen, about Kars and Esidisi and Wammu. The old man loves to boast about how he was able to defeat Kars even after being amputated- which was already doubtful and now he can cite Avdol’s situation. If it hadn’t been for uncle Smokey and Grandma LisaLisa, he might of doubted everything .
Joseph. The old man of old men. Being monitored for any side effects the blood transfusion from Dio’s corpse might of had. Other than that, besides a few broken bones, he had come out of all of this in the best condition.
Polnareff had a few broken bones too, a small fracture in his collarbone, and a concussion. He was already back to his annoying whiny self due to some of his fingers being taped together, making it so that he couldn’t style his hair even if the hospital let him. But if he had died, even if he hadn’t even been supposed to be with them in the first place, Jotaro would of mourned him. He would of added that guilt onto his list.
Iggy. The damn dog. Severe exhaustion, mild pneumonia (he’d had no idea dogs could get that), and a broken leg in addition to the one he already lost.
And Jotaro himself… he really shouldn’t be in this situation with the list he’s built up. His nifty not-so little Stand was able to make the doctors see his condition in a different way. One could say falsifying. And maybe he should be regretting the choice of not getting treatment for all his injuries like everyone else taking it easy. It would actually be really easy to get himself out of this situation, had he actually chose to. But he can’t really use Star where he is. He could stop time, fly, but… trauma is trauma. Even he can’t chose how much that bitch hits. Just thinking about it makes his skin tingle with the cold, his body and mind what he did when he confronted Dio for the first time, his throat choke with an invisible force, and his mind itch for his hand to reach in and his heart to just stop.
So that’s why he’s dangling above the entrance of a train tunnel. His left foot (sprained) is hooked on a thin and frayed rough cloth wire from which the clothes of beggars hang from over the bridge. He has to keep it bent (and it hurts) or else he’ll slip. And regardless of his thoughts, he doesn’t want to die. He doesn’t want to fall, what is it, twelve meters? To the ground. It would of been more but his weight unfortunately pulled the rope down lower, bringing him into the path of any train that could pass under him and farther from the top of the bridge. Even if he could contour himself enough, he wouldn’t have anything to hold onto.
And of course, because its the beggars quarter, no one has passed by. Which is just ridiculous. People would be surprised with the fact that he’s actually a good student. And even if he weren’t, he’d be aware of something as basic as probability. So besides the probability that all of Egypt’s population can defy basic statistics and that his probability of making it out of here at least uninjured has definitely been thrown out the window…
Another train train suddenly rattles along the tracks and Jotaro just manages to swing up and hold the painful position, Star’s flickering hand coming out to steady him, waiting the burning half-minute before the train is gone, slumping back over and knocking his back over the bottom of the bridge as he hangs there again, arms dangling, blood rushing to his head.
His hat is already long gone. His coat had been torn off by the muggers who’d managed to knock him over the bridge in the first place. He isn’t exactly fond of violence. It’s a necessity but he doesn’t actively seek it out or volunteer for it. And after fifty days of it, it’ll be a while before he can let his own fists get flecked with blood from so much as someone else’s papercut. And using his Stand on people who may just be trying to feed their families for another day…
His rubs twinge with protest and he sucks in a harsh breath, moving his arms up? Down? Against gravity to his midsection, numb fingers feathering over discolored skin, bruised from days and hours old injuries and burnt from the sun falling over bared skin since there’s the bandages don’t cover up most of his skin and his t-shirt nearly falling over his face doesn’t help. The one time he had brought himself to bring feeling back into a single finger, the tender skin there had hurt . It reminds him that he does burn too easily, something he got from his mother’s side from the family, she getting it from her mother. It’s probably the limited but continuous sun that has allowed his skin to tan as much as it has.
Hanging here for a few hours… it’s let him think. Think a lot. The only one of them who’s in the bed for more than half the day is Kakyoin. He’s healed nicely in the ten days since Dio’s defeat, and he’s been insistent that he start physical therapy right away after his surgery since his legs hadn’t been damaged beyond some superficial cuts and bruises. There’s no reason that he shouldn’t of been found already. His muscles are strained, his bones feel like they’re aching, his eyes are pulsing behind closed lids. He has a headache. The only thing enjoyable about this is the feeling of the breeze against his bare skin. It’s nice. He hasn’t had the time to really enjoy anything, and the last time he’s felt a breeze as nice as this is back home when they go to the coast.
Hermit Purple could definitely find at least which part of the city he is. Magician’s red could use it’s life-detecting thing that Polnareff told him about to maybe sense someone with a Stand, said person being him. Kakyoin could use Hierophant Green to see over the city, even from the comforts of his hospital bed. Only Polnareff and Iggy are useless Stand-wise to find him, and even then Polnareff could carry Iggy and have the dog him track him down via smell, and the frenchman could go on foot. He’s probably laugh at Jotaro’s situation.
It could be so easy to let his foot slip. To no longer have to have the coarse rope dig into his skin, to no longer have to be aware of when a train could come by. It’s been hours. Is anyone… is anyone really going to come for him?
He blames the situation, really. It’s just something of this situation being dangerous that makes him unable to bring out Star Platinum for anything besides helping his foot keep a hold on the rope. He just… can’t. He can’t use the spirit he’d gotten to know and learn to control over the fifty days. He can’t without the impossible cold running through him in the Egyptian heat.
And he hates it. He hates how weak he’s become, how inhuman it makes him feel when he thinks about exactly why he feels that way about using Star as anything basically other than a butler. All of them have asked how he defeated Dio. They didn’t the first few days, about three, but after that, they didn’t hold himself back, wondering how he was able to defeat stopped time.
Even Kakyoin, who is probably the only reason he was able to take the vampire down, wasn’t able to connect the dots. And he’s told no one , not even jiji , not even his mom every time she’s called, boasting about the newest thing she’s been able to do with her rather passive Stand, Moon Rosette.
“Wait- Jotaro? JOTARO ! Polnareff- call mister Joestar. Tell him I’ve found him.” Jotaro opens his eyes, easier than usual thanks to gravity, and sees that the sun is nearly gone. Did he pass out?
“What the hell- Avdol, I can’t! You won’t be able to pull him up.” Jotaro doesn’t have the energy to bend up again, but he can move his eyes as low as they can go. Past his nose, leaning over the dangerously short stone wall, stands Polnareff and Avdol. The former’s hair stands in a proud piller, although some strands have fallen over his face. Bandages are visible over the skin of his shoulders. Avdol’s metal hands clutch the top of the wall in a fluctuating death grip, fingers twitching randomly and causing rock dust to fall on either side of him.
“Hey- are you okay!?” Polnareff exclaims. The outlines of Silver Chariot flicker in and out and Jotaro feels a slash of jealously. If only he could take summoning his own Stand that casually…
“What do you think?” Jotaro replies in the only way he knows. “Couldn’t of come a bit faster? I’ve been here for a few hours.” He sees Polnareff’s eyes widen.
“ Hours? Merde, we’ve only been looking for an hour. How haven’t you gotten back up again? Can’t Star-”
“Star hovers, he can’t fly” Jotaro lies through his teeth. “Now hurry up and get me the hell up from here. I think my ankle is sprained or something and my leg is numb.” Before he knows it, Avdol and Polnareff work together to pull the rope higher, succeeding in both bringing him closer to them and making the rope dig tighter into his ankle.
“How did you hang on for so long” Polnareff mutters. Avdol hisses something at him. After another minute of discussion, he is finally- finally hauled over the top.
And the world looks like it’s spinning. Black dots that probably would of been in his vision if his eyes had been open in the time it took the two to find him. He throws away his pride and collapses heavily on the ground, tipping his head forward to rest against a knee.
“Hey- Jotaro? Jotaro, are you okay?” Avdol asks, a sun-warmed hand gently placing itself on his shoulder.
“Yeah” he quickly says. “Just… need to catch my breath.”
Sometimes he wish they asked more questions. They didn’t tell Joseph or Kakyoin how they found him, hanging off a bridge by a foot caught on a makeshift clothesline. They answered for him where he was- taking a walk. And where was his hat? Stolen via steal-and-run.
So he really thinks it’s their fault when he’s sleeping and Polnareff decides to wake him up by drawing on his skin with marker with everyone else holding back their laughter and whispering suggestions. It would of been funny if his mind hadn’t decided that it was too lonely and bored when asleep and started a habit of giving him nightmares that are more fact than fiction. So halfway through something being drawn on his neck, the marker too cold, too small of a tip, too much like blood leaking from a sharpened knife.
It shouldn’t of been so surprising or shocking or hurtful when between the seconds, between one moment of time and the next, instead of half-propped up in his bed by the door, he’s suddenly at the other side of the room with a hand resting on the bottom of the open window, Star Platinum not manifested but the flicker of gold stand energy and a shine of gold in his eyes present, traits that the others had only seen on one other person, a person who is dead, a person who Jotaro killed.