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d e v o n
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@returntothefadedsea
Anemone porcelain crabs may look delicate, but they have their own sort of armor: a hard exoskeleton. They live under rocks, sponges, groups of feather stars, and even in giant anemones where they can hide inside the tentacles.
Photo: Paul Flandinette
(via The Porcelain Crab | Smithsonian Ocean Portal)
unexpected visitor
Steely laid his head back, making a satisfied sound. “What, you think I don’t need these? Living in constant aches and pains doesn’t qualify me to need these?” He laughed a bit, then took another swig from his beer. The lover boy needed to remind himself he wasn’t bitter; he’d deserved what he got. Even he could admit to that.
"You don’t have the right to judge me, not when you’re drinking yourself stupid. You should honestly just try weed instead, less destructive and just as mind-numbing."
He scoffed at the mention of weed. "Seriously? Maybe if I want to just lay in bed and eat a whole pizza, sure, great idea." He hadn't even touched the stuff since high school, and even then it was only once. It was with some friends and he was 90% sure there was mostly oregano mixed in but the others acted like it was the dankest shit. "It's not even that fun."
unexpected visitor
Steely leaned back in his seat, watching Jotaro go for water instead of booze. Having a drink or two wouldn’t be all that bad about now… “Don’t look too much into it? Hmph, all right.” The lover boy waved a hand and pouted slightly. “Here I thought we were making progress, or something.”
Getting up, he decided to search the room’s mini fridge. “Can I have one of your beers?” he asked, grabbing the beverage before Jotaro could respond. “Y’know, mixing pills an alcohol isn’t really a good idea.” In a stunning display of hypocrisy, he then sat down with his beer, grabbed his own pills from his bag, and swallowed two.
"I haven't even been drinking that much." he lied, rolling his eyes at the hypocrisy. Jotaro finished off the last of the second fajita before laying back in bed. "Besides, I actually needed to take these." he added in with a sideways glance towards Steely.
Octopus rubescens. Moss Beach CA, Aug. 2014 / TS25 /
unexpected visitor
Steely paused in his stride to the door. Did he hear that right? “…You sure?” He looked over his shoulder at Jotaro, trying not to seem as surprised as he was. “I mean, I can… all right.” Why was he even going to argue against this?
Finding a seat in the hotel’s couch, he crossed one leg over the other and set his cane aside. “…It’s weird, talking to you casually,” he said at length, looking down at the floor. “I didn’t have anything personal against you or your friends, back then. I was just being paid to do something I enjoyed. And now, it’s like… you’re one of the only people I ever left alive, who ever beat me. I don’t normally talk to my targets after I’m done with them.” Oh, geez, why was he saying this? “It’s just weird to talk to you like a peer.”
He might have allowed him to stay, but he still didn't really want to talk much. Jotaro went for his pills and, magically enough, to get himself a glass of water instead of booze to wash them down. His psychiatrist was probably shedding a proud tear somewhere.
Once finished with them, he went back to the bed and his other fajita. "Don't look too much into it." he waved him off before biting into the meaty goodness, already hard at work to soak up the liquid in his stomach. Hell, it was even helping fend off those thoughts... or was it the medicine? Whatever.
unexpected visitor
Steely Dan fell silent. He stared pointedly at the wall, trying to avoid Jotaro’s gaze. “…Kujo,” he said at length, turning to finally face his old enemy again. “I don’t want anything from you.” He stood up with some effort, grabbing his cane and leaning on it. Damn, his old injuries were acting up again… aches and pains he tried to ignore. “I’ll tell me supervisor… something. I don’t know. But if you want me to keep the Stand user a secret, I will.”
Gathering his bag, the lover boy checked his watch. “Shit, it’s late.” The buses had probably stopped running. He’d have to walk back to his hotel, or get a room here instead.
He stayed silent as the other man stood and moved to leave, reminded again just how much they had changed over the years. His eyes wandered over to the nightstand covered in pill bottles.
"Just..." he stopped himself, not even sure what he was asking. He sighed. "Just stay here, you can go home in the morning. This ares of town gets dangerous at night." he actually didn't know that, but it sounded like a good excuse to get Steely to stay.
unexpected visitor
"Or what, you’re gonna hit me? Doesn’t scare me anymore, Kujo. You hit me plenty back in Egypt." Steely Dan watched him carefully, narrowing his eyes. "…Fine. I won’t ask about the Stand user any more. I’ll leave that alone, let my supervisor handle it. But you have to tell me you’ll get your injuries looked at!" The lover boy frowned, looking away from Jotaro and messing with the ends of his sleeves. "I don’t care or anything, really. I just don’t want to get in trouble if you end up dying from infection or something stupid like that."
His hand rubbed at the wrapping on his other arm, more nervously than anything. He cleaned and bound them, he stitched what needed to, he was fine. He didn't need a doctor, he was fine. "I took care of them, ok? I told you already to stop talking, stop wanting shit from me!" He wanted to be left alone. If he was alone, people would stop getting hurt. The alcohol numb the guilt. The cigarettes would drown out the pain. It would be fine. Everything would be fine.
unexpected visitor
Noticing where Jotaro’s eyes were going, Steely pulled another treat from the bag and pushed it over to him. “…hm…” He listened to Jotaro talk, mulling it over in his head as he finished off his own burrito. This was worrying. More worrying than Jotaro probably thought.
"So a random Stand user just happened to find you and threaten you… and your… what?" The lover boy didn’t have much tact, just wanting the truth. "I’m not leaving yet, Kujo. I have to make sure you’re actually going to be okay. You’re drunk and injured and just… ugh. If you die or get even more hurt, I’m gonna be blamed! So at least tell me you’re going to get those injuries checked out…? Or, hell, let me look at them."
All the questioning was getting him even more agitated, leading to pissing him off even more. "Stop talking so much, shut up!" he growled at him. There it was, that drowning feeling again welling in the pit of his stomach, the same one he tried to bury under all the alcohol. It wasn't his fault people died. He just needed to keep telling himself that. "Just... just fucking shut up, please..."
unexpected visitor
Steely practically lost his hand as Jotaro grabbed the food, staring at him with wide eyes. Good lord, it was like feeding a hungry dog. “God! How drunk are you?” he asked, rolling his eyes. Though… he was kind of cute, ripping into that fajita like that.
"So, you tracked the guy down, and he somehow managed to kill himself?" The lover boy took a seat on the far end of the bed, biting into a burrito of his own. "That’s the story you’re going with? I don’t care either way, I just need to know what to tell my supervisor. Why were you tracking him? Was he just a rogue Stand user?"
He shook his head. "I wasn't tracking him. Hell, I wasn't tracking anyone." Jotaro finished his food in one more bite, side-eyeing the bag in hopes of getting more. "He just found me... I was literally just out taking some notes for a research paper when he approached me." The stand user's hand clenched as he thought back to the incident.
"He could control water, but it wasn't... right. It happened so quickly and I didn't even get a good grasp of what it could do, all I knew was that he was gonna kill me and my-" he stopped mid sentence, eyes narrowing. "He broke his neck in the struggle, that's it. So go and report it and leave me alone."
unexpected visitor
Steely glanced toward Jotaro again, only to have his gaze locked on… well. Watching him fish his clothes out from under the bed was entertainment in itself. The lover boy tapped his fingers against the table, feeling his face get hot. He couldn’t remark about the scars; he had plenty of his own.
"Wait- what?!" Steely snapped out of his trance, staring at Jotaro incredulously. "And… that’s why you’re all beat up like this?" Putting his face in his hands, he let out a loud sigh. "You couldn’t just call the Foundation and let someone know? It’s not a big deal - well, I don’t think it’s a big deal, anyway - if you took out some scrub. No reason to sequester yourself like this…!"
Standing up, he grabbed the bag of food and brought it over to the bed. He took one burrito for himself, then held the rest of the bag out to Jotaro with a small frown. “Have you even been to the hospital? Geez… I’m not taking any responsibility if your wounds get infected and you die, or something.”
He grabbed the burrito maybe a bit too quickly, unwrapping it only to find it was actually a fajita. It was like staring into the face of god, Jotaro biting right in with a satisfied groan. Drinking always turned him into a desperate fat kid.
He took another bite. "I don't..." he gulped. "Wanna be around people right now. Fuck that." Thanks, Steely. Ruining good food with shitty conversation. "It doesn't matter if that guy died or not, I don't care about that."
unexpected visitor
There was an unmistakable change in Jotaro’s expression, though brief. It seemed Steely had made the right choice. “If you need help getting up, I can-“
He was cut off by sloshing water. A chorus of angels sang in his head as he watched Jotaro get up; he tried to keep a straight face. The corners of his mouth tugged into a smile that he could barely contain, and he stole as many quick, shameless glances as he could. “Ah, you’re okay, then.” Moving out of his way, the lover boy gathered his composure and scurried out of the bathroom like a schoolgirl following her prom date.
"It is a big deal!" he insisted, finding a seat for himself at the hotel room’s small table. "I need to know what happened. Is there someone after you? Are people in danger? I need to know!" Not that he particularly cared, he just knew his supervisor would.
Jotaro was basically too drunk to care about modesty, the towel around his waist far too short for him to be bending over like that to fish out the pants out from under the bed. Once he had something resembling an outfit, he dropped the towel and went right to dressing himself.
Besides the bandages and fresher wounds, his body was covered in older scars as well. It seemed as though he was collecting far more of them in his later years than he ever had in his rough high school days. He frowned some at the thought of it, pushing the memories from his mind as he pulled a tshirt on.
"He's dead." he replied rather abruptly, sitting back on the bed as he went to already light himself a new cigarette. "It wasn't a big deal. I tracked him, he attacked me, and he ended up killing himself by accident. So there." he let loose a puff of smoke, easing himself against the pillows and into a more comfortable laying back position on the bed. "I'm fine."
unexpected visitor
Listening to Jotaro speak, Steely slowly peeked through his fingers. It didn’t seem that he cared much about modesty. Moving his hand away, the Lovers user shifted uncomfortably. “Ah, geez.” He bit at his lip as he tried to think of what to say. “You took care of it? What exactly does that mean? Listen, my supervisor is gonna have my ass if I don’t come back with a satisfactory explanation for why you haven’t said a damn thing to anyone in almost a week.”
Remembering his peace offering, he suddenly held up the bag of fast food he carried. “I brought burritos! You’re probably hungry, right? Why don’t you come out of the tub, get some clothes on, have a delicious fried snack and tell me exactly what’s going on, Mr. Kujo. I’m not leaving until you give me a better explanation than just ‘I took care of it’.”
Steely was proud of himself, smirking a little. Jotaro wasn’t so hard to deal with! And not bad looking, either.
His mask cracked at the sight of food. It was true, he hadn't eaten anything real in... damn, he couldn't even recall. It was a wonder he was still going with just a stomach full of booze. He turned away, trying his best to look uninterested.
"Fine, whatever..." he muttered, grunting as he slowly shifted himself to prepare to stand. His body was still in pain, hence why he was soaking in the hot bath, but it still didn't do much to help. Jotaro somehow managed to get himself out of the tub while wrapping a towel around his waist. He looked annoyed as he waved for Steely to move aside, forgetting his half-finished bottle behind as he moved past the other stand user and into the bedroom.
"I told you, I just took care of it. It's not a big deal." he replied, trying hard to make his limp not obvious as he began to dig around for clean clothes.
unexpected visitor
This wasn’t right. A Stand shouldn’t have been as… faded as Star Platinum was. Steely straightened out his collar when he was let go and tried to gather his composure. Opening the door to the bathroom, he coughed slightly from the haze of smoke and stench of alcohol, squinting to see where Jotaro was.
Ah. There he was. Naked.
The lover boy took a deep breath, closing his eyes and putting a hand over them to keep himself from staring. By god, he knew he’d stare - he was a weak man. A slave to his passions. “Mr. Kujo?” he called, staying a good few paces away from the tub just in case Jotaro decided to try to drown him. “I noticed there’s blood and bandages out there, did you get into a fight? Why haven’t you contacted the Foundation?”
His injured left leg hooked at the knee over the edge of the tub and chest stayed above water, bandages wrapping around his thick chest and up his neck. The rest of him was covered in small cuts and bruises, but nothing too severe to need heavy wrappings.
Jotaro took one last drag of his cigarette before messily stubbing it out on the tiled floor. His lidded eyes turned to Steely for a few moments before gazing away. He might have been drunk and sleep deprived, but he could tell he wasn't lying. Surprising.
"It doesn't matter, I took care of it." he muttered in response, letting his now free hand sink into the steaming water. He didn't give a damn if he was gonna stare, he had better things to worry about. "So what, is that it? Or are you gonna keep standing there?" he questioned gruffly. He tried hard to hold up this pissed off face, hoping to just scare Steely away so he could be left alone.
Hammerhead School
unexpected visitor
Looked like someone had a bit of a scrap. The source of the blood wasn’t readily apparent, but Steely felt himself tense anyway. If Kujo had messed up someone else or been messed up himself, he couldn’t tell.
A very familiar Stand’s arm grabbed his shirt, and he let out a surprised yelp. “I told you!” he cried out, nearly dropping the bag of fried goodies he’d brought as a peace offering. “I’m with the Foundation, my supervisor sent me here to check on you because you haven’t made contact in a few days! I’m… it’s Steely Dan, all right?! They sent me because I was the closest to your location!” Or they just hated him. Maybe both.
Whimpering, he looked down at his precious shirt being rumpled. “Please put me down… I don’t want any trouble, Mr. Kujo.”
The grip was strong, but the stand continued to fade in and out like a television losing its picture. Even after the reply from the stand user, Star Platinum took its time to finally let go and back off just enough for Steely to get to the door. Jotaro said nothing more, only coughing and smoke coming from inside the bathroom.
The tub was full of hot water and drunken marine biologist, cigarette hanging from his lips and half empty bottle of some cheap alcohol about to fall out of his hand. If he didn't sound miserable, by god, he sure as hell looked it. Scruff on his chin, bags under his eyes, Steely was lucky he at least had his wounds wrapped back up. He took a drag from his cigarette, letting loose the smoke with a scowl on his face and razor blades in his eyes.
unexpected visitor
Unaware of exactly what he was getting into, Steely simply pushed the door the rest of the way open. The hotel room was in disrepair, to say the least; not as organized or clean as he’d expect from someone like Kujo. Stepping over the threshhold, he looked for the source of the smoke, and followed the trail to the closed bathroom door. Seemed there was more at work here than just a routine check-in.
"Mr. Kujo?" he called again, knocking on the bathroom door, though quieter than the front. "I’m here from the Foundation to make sure you’re all right. Uh, the front door was open so I just came inside. I… I have burritos."
Next to the bathroom was a table covered in first aid supplies and bloodied towels, days worth of old bandages strewn across it all. The hotel itself seemed to be in order, besides the mess, so wherever the injury had occurred, it certainly wasn't there.
Just as Steely spoke, a hand would grab him by the front of his shirt. The limb extended into only a hazy shadow of a stand, not the proud Star Platinum that was usually there. The animosity was thick in the air, as if Steely had just walked into an attack dog waiting to strike.
"What the hell are you doing in my hotel room?" the voice came from the other side of the closed bathroom door. Star Platinum tightened its grip. "Start talking."
unexpected visitor
returntothefadedsea
There was nothing stopping Steely Dan from just leaving now. No one in his way, no barrier. As he stood in the hallway of the hotel he’d been sent to, gripping his purse (though he’d insist it was anything but) and a bag of fast food burritos and fajitas, he considered just leaving right then and there. He’d eat all of those burritos himself. He didn’t care. All five of them.
Sighing loudly, he knew he couldn’t actually leave. His supervisor had been very insistent that he go here and check on the man supposedly residing inside. He’d also been insistent about the fast food. Apparently, Kujo could get pretty rowdy on an empty stomach. Though he was sure he’d already seen the full force of his wrath before.
"Hello?" he called, reaching out and knocking on the door several times. "Mr. Kujo? It’s… uh. It’s someone from the Foundation. I’m here to check on you."
They hadn’t seen each other for almost three months now. After Jotaro had found him in Delhi and recruited him as a mole, they hadn’t really spoken. It was almost as if the man didn’t like him or something.
Little did Steely know, this was far more than just a little housecall. No one had seen or heard from the Joestar in over a week, something very out of character for the normally organized man. Someone else would have come, but it turned out that Steely Dan was literally the closest of their contacts to where he was staying. Plus the Foundation simply didn't like him, so why not send the errand boy to get smacked around by a grumpy Jotaro.
Upon the knocking, the door opened just a crack. It seemed as though whoever opened it last didn't shut it all the way, leaving only the 'do not disturb' sign hanging from the doorknob to deter invaders. The door was stopped by an empty bottle on the floor, several other matching ones paired with overflowing ashtrays littered across the surfaces of the darkened room. A TV was on somewhere, the low volume muffled in the distance while both smoke and steam slithered out from the bathroom.
