aionlogs | my foolish heart...

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my foolish heart...

WHO: Jonathan "Johnny" "Jojo" "Joe Kid" Joestar & Pleromies
WHAT: post-event failing to relax after getting heroically fucked up in Godsblood
WHERE: Greentruth (main portion and ground-level farms)
WHEN: post-event, late in the month
WARNINGS: n/a other than injury care

A. greentruth higher levels

[ They'd won the day in Godsblood. They'd won the day, and, somehow, he helped them win it. Johnny's not really one for heroics. That said, he is a big fan of winning things, and he has to say that it feels damn good for the underdog to come out on top this time.

Or, rather, it would feel good if he wasn't covered in burns.

After barely managing to crawl back to Greentruth, he's been in the same boat as many other Pleroma: laid up in a sick bed. Their makeshift medical camp up in the trees is "rustic," as are most things in their treetop hideaway, but the presence of a few people capable of using healing powers makes a big difference. Of course, being lit on fire was no small injury, and the medics around insisted that Johnny make time for his body to heal - in his condition, particularly. If an infection set in on his legs, he might not know until it was too late without anyone paying attention.

So he stays. For a day. A day and a half, actually. He's grateful that the place is mostly open-air, because it makes it a little bit easier not to think of dark, stagnant air or remember the smell of blood and piss that sat heavy in it. It means it takes a little bit longer for him to start waking up with his heart racing and a hand clutching at his thigh for a needle that isn't there. Every nurse that isn't an Aion is treated with tense cordiality, Johnny's eyes on their hands, their pockets. It's paranoia, he knows. Knowing, however, isn't enough to make him stop imagining the smile on their faces when they turn away, the things they might be doing when he's asleep.

Those coming to visit on the second half of that second day - whether looking for Johnny specifically, or maybe another injured person - will see him sitting up straight on his bed, still swaddled in bandages, staring quite hard at his wheelchair, parked on the other side of the makeshift sickbay. And, miraculously, the wheelchair actually starts to head in his direction... although it's less miraculous to anyone who can see the supernatural, as they'll see his tiny Stand struggling to push it over towards him. ]

B. greentruth ground level

[ Eventually, he does make his great escape from the recovery ward, such as it is. Since then, he's been trying to keep busy. It's partially because he wants a distraction from the pain of his injuries, partially because he needs the money, and partially because he's realizing that he can't keep living like this. He's not making progress. He saved Vaeka. So what? For him, nothing has changed.

He needs to do something. What that something is, however, he has no idea, and, severely limited in his ability to search for that something, he defaults to the only something he's good at: raising and riding animals. There aren't any horses in Greentruth (outside of one very rude one, and he doesn't want to talk to her), but he's become rather familiar with a handful of the kocsigyik breeders due to his regular need of their animals. One of them, finally, agreed to let him do a little bit of work around the stables, though he'd regarded Johnny with quite a bit of skepticism. Of course, that only made Johnny more determined to excel.

Today, he's helping train a few of the younger beasts. Two of them, towering over Johnny in his chair despite their young age, are following after him, their leads in one hand as he rolls backwards with the other. Despite the uneven terrain, the wheel turns unusually easily under his fingertips, and while he looks tired and bandaged, he's also surprisingly tranquil. They sure as hell aren't horses. But they aren't all that different, and they have their own charm about them, he thinks - not at all like the awful creatures he knew as dinosaurs back home, something that's very, very clear as they reach the end of the paddock and one of them wanders up to him and starts trying to eat his hat. ]

Hey - hey, careful! [ but he's laughing a little, even as the dinosaur makes him wince touching his burns, and the kocsigyik swiftly finds what it's looking for: a few treats that Johnny had hidden up there. ] All right, smartass, you got me.

C. OTHER

[ if you want to meet up with Johnny for something specific, just PM me and let's figure something out! ]

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See? There she is.

[ so Johnny has seen Hayame, once in a while. Not that he's looking for her or anything, but since he's started spending more time down on the forest floor, it's become apparent that this is where she's usually hanging around, too - and she's pretty hard to miss. She's hardly a constant presence, but she does seem to come back now and then to get supplies. (God only knows where she is the rest of the time.) After their one and only encounter, he hasn't interacted with her beyond the occasional dirty look; even so, in these brief glimpses, it's hard for him not to notice that she's hurt. He grew up around horses; he can easily recognize the signs of strain and stress, and he also knows how fragile their bodies can be, despite all the muscle.

Not that he cares. Not really. But Yuuta noticed too, and wanted to help, and correctly presumed that Johnny would know how - that he's probably the only one who knows how, considering that there essentially are no horses in Greentruth. And it's not like he wants Hayame to die. So here they are, near the lift up to the higher levels of the city, waiting to catch sight of her from their own purposefully-inconspicuous little spot.

Johnny rests his chin on his hand, looking over at Yuuta. ]

... You call out to her. She'll cuss me out if I try anything.

Oh! You're right. ( yuuta had already checked, and hayame had certainly made good on her promise to vacate the last spot she'd made camp and move it elsewhere. he had lucked out in stumbling across her trail the first time, but he's found it much harder going forward — knowing that someone might try to come looking for her (as yuuta had plainly threatened to), it wouldn't have been difficult for her to simply relocate to some place harder for someone to track her. it's not like he's some sort of expert outdoorsman. hell, up until a little under a year ago, he'd only ever really been out of the city on things like field trips... living in greentruth had been a culture shock at first, but even starting to grow accustomed to it didn't make him a master of the wilderness.

it's not as though she never emerges from the forest, however, and just as johnny had noticed that the more equine parts of her are ailing (yuuta has no concept of what a healthy or ill horse might look like), he still finds himself concerned. she hadn't looked all that great when he'd spoken with her a month or so ago, and the warpath she'd carved through venera surely hadn't helped matters. it had taken a few impassioned words and pleading eyes to get johnny to agree to go with him, but now he leads the way toward her, similarly steeling himself in.

yuuta chuckles, the sound quietly dying off before he replies, ) The last time I saw her, she shot an arrow at me. But, no worries, I will.

( no harm, no foul, as they say. it had cut him, just a little bit, but he didn't think much of it.

he's aware that it's going to look like they're staking out the lift (they are), but there's not much they can do about that. he just tries to head the trouble off at the pass, brazen in his geniality as always. )

Hayame-san! ( he raises a hand in greeting, approaching a few paces. ) Hi. Um - do you have a moment? ( you know, to spend with two of her favorite young men? (: )

[Hayame did not want to meet anyone who knew her name to see her on this visit to Greentruth proper for supplies. Ever since she had returned to the forest via the ship from Venera to Godsblood, she has been holed up as much as she could manage in the hidden part of the mists where she made her camp rather than live amongst the rebels or the rest of the Pleroma, binding her wounds as best she could and hoping that time would heal them. Even if she found it in her to swallow her pride and dislike of magic to ask that healer woman to lay hands on her...

She was captured and gone. If life was kind to her, perhaps she was dead.

Hayame isn't, though. Her walk is slow and measured to try and disguise the limp of a left foreleg with a swollen shoulder and heavy bruising that her dun coat is not dark enough to fully disguise. Her upper left shoulder is held just as stiff, bound and wrapped tight beneath an uncharacteristic sleeved shirt...but no amount of fabric disguises cuts from a blade along horseflesh- a sword, judging by the length, that's left a wound still weeping because each step disturbs the flesh attempting to scab over and heal.

And in addition to not having the fortune to have died in battle against a worthy opponent, in addition to her failures in Venera to kill a single Kenoma, to capture (save) either of the two that she had attempted to, slinking back to Greentruth in defeat... she now has the misfortune to have run into a monster-wielding exorcist and a cripple.

Her eyes narrow. Hackles raise.]

... What do you want?

Ah, you're up! [Syrlya is just sticking his head into the tent, for the second day to see how Johnny is recovering. The first one he only found him sleeping, and left him to it.]

How are you... [He trails off as he enters the tent and see the wheelchair rolling along. From this distance he doesn't even see the Stand.] Recovering?

[ that gets him to jerk up, looking over at Yuuta. ]

Wait, what?!

[ she shot an arrow at him?! Johnny is (understandably) concerned about this, but he's already calling her over - a hand flies to his temple, and he shakes his head. Hayame, of course, looks pissed off. He has a feeling that's her default expression, but he also has a feeling it's worse when she's looking at him. Or them, maybe, depending on what Yuuta did to warrant attempted murder.

Her wounds do look bad. He's one to talk, with swaths of his skin wrapped up in bandages wherever it might normally be visible, but hey, at least he has bandages. She doesn't even have that. She's done nothing to warrant his concern, after the way she treated him, but he can't help but feel a little badly seeing those injuries. If she were a regular horse, he would be at her side instantly...

Sigh. ]

Listen. If you keep on walking on that shoulder, you're gonna give yourself nerve damage. You wanna end up like me? [ apparently, he has no problem putting himself down for the same thing. ] You need help.

[ ... ]

I've treated injuries like that before.

[ the moment he hears someone's voice, Tusk blinks out of existence and Johnny jerks up ramrod-straight (which is followed by a hissed "ow!" as he exacerbates some burns on his back.) Glancing over, he sees Syrlya - right, the weird wooden guy from the mission - and immediately looks somewhat awkward, ignoring the wheelchair completely. ]

Uh... Fine! Ernesto helped me a little, so, you know...

[ he gestures vaguely. It's obvious looking at him that he's not healed - he's not wearing a shirt, and thus, very visibly still covered in burns and bandages - but he's clearly on his way out regardless. Or attempting to be on his way out, at least. ]

That's good to hear. [It's natural enough for him to trust allies he hardly knows, by now, having spent so long on the warfront... but he does always feel a little and when he has to leave someone behind. It hasn't always been with the understanding assistance was coming.

He glances to the wheelchair again.] I assume you'll be laid up for a while?

[ at that, he looks slightly chagrined, glancing off at the chair as well. It's still too far away for him to actually reach. No escaping... yet.

Johnny shakes his head. ]

I feel okay, so I'm gonna get out of here soon.

[ very, very soon. ]

[His lips twitch briefly with amusement.] Is that doctor's orders, or your orders?

[He's sure seen this enough times.]

[ a grunt. ]

What, are you gonna snitch?

[ he trusted you, leaf boy!! ]

[She'd heard, of course, that Johnny had been hurt. But seeing him now, sitting in bed...it was a little disheartening. It'd been worse than she'd thought. Yet, here she was with a basket of get-well treats. Mostly fruit, but also a pastry she'd taken from Godsblood.]

...It's good to see you made it, Johnny.

[All right. That gets a proper grin out of him even if he tries not to look like he finds it funny.

He crosses the room to the wheelchair, reaching for the handles to push it closer to the bed.] Perhaps they'll feel more comfortable about you getting some fresh air if there was someone else with you.

[A pause.] Or they'll admonish me for assisting your escape, but I'm not afraid of them.

( oh, you know. normal things that happen when trying to befriend an angry jinba.

hayame had looked rough the last time he saw her in the forests beneath greentruth as well. he had thought to offer to help however he could, but given how (understandably) wary she ended up being of him and rika's looming presence, he had begrudgingly decided that leaving her be was likely the kinder option. at least from what he can tell from johnny, however, he can help attend to whatever injuries she might have even without a supernatural ability to do so. well, the equine parts of her at least, but that was still better than leaving her to the elements.

this time around... none of them look great. hayame hides an obvious limp and wounds beneath her clothing, johnny is partially mummified, and yuuta's face is a patchwork quilt of fading bruises. he's largely here to get johnny some support in his offer (and maybe extend an offer to help heal the other injuries of hayame's, if she's feeling magnanimous enough), so when his friend speaks up, he falls silent, though he still has that nervous energy of someone just barely holding back from leaping into the conversation at any moment.

he doesn't resist perfectly. he just waits until after johnny's said his peace. )

We just want to help! And - we won't do anything you don't want us to do. We promise.

[ rand hasn't spent much time down here.

mostly, his time in greentruth has been restricted to training areas. places where he can teach archery, can craft bows and arrows, can train in swordplay with yuuta and, more recently, can practice channeling. but despite his frequent visits to greentruth, he hasn't explored beyond that.

granted, he hasn't explored much in the city where until very recently he had his own apartment and some semblance of steady work. so maybe this isn't so surprising. but lately, being in godsblood has been harder. any sense of safety is gone, and there are — a lot of people he's avoiding lately. so more of his free time has been spent out here.

finding johnny is more of an accident than anything else, a stumbling onto the stables and then johnny himself. somewhat literally; his leg is still healing from gray's scythe, so he isn't as steady on his feet as he usually is. still, it's hard not to smile a little at the sound of johnny's laughter, and these general antics. ]

You're good with them.

[No matter who it was that confronted her in this moment... Hayame would not have been happy. That might not be a comfort, but it is the truth. She begins to look a bit defensive the moment it becomes obvious what this is about, her stance stiff(er than it already was), her jaw tight, and her lip tempted to curl into a sneer.]

You two... are healers...

[The irony, she hopes they realize, is palpable. A man covered in bandages who cannot even walk and a man who has a monster following him that tries to hurt people... are healers? They expect her to believe that?

The problem is... As much as it would hurt her pride, as offensive as she finds the insinuation, and most importantly... how genuinely horrifying she founds it to have magic course through her body... There is a reason lurking in the back of Hayame's mind, growing more and more difficult to ignore... that she needed to not be injured. If that man had broken his word to meet her here, there must be a reason. Either he was injured somewhere himself... or perhaps more likely, he had not been able to trust her at his side when she was this weak.

And that possibility clamps down on her hearts in a way that is painful. Almost more painful than her wounds- the idea that she would be useless. It feels like it takes her an eternity to throttle herself into submission, to even begin to hint that she might be open to this idea, but. ... If they were capable, and that healer woman was not available-]

... And how do you expect that debt be paid?

[It's not a rejection. Though it it is followed up by a curt,]

Do not say something cloying like "we just want to help".

[That wasn't something she could believe in. That she would be helped with no expectation of service or debt. And she could not just let it be decided by ~~her opponent~~ the other what form that expectation might take.]

[ at her comment, she shakes his head slightly, jabbing a thumb in Yuuta's direction. ]

This guy's a healer. I'm just-- [ he hesitates for a second. In their first meeting, he'd been wary of comparing her to a horse for fear of offending her; now, he's certain it would offend her, but hell, what else is he supposed to say? Like it or not, her bottom half is basically identical to a modern equine. ] -- I'm a professional horse racer. I've been around 'em my whole life, including when they get hurt. I don't have any magic or anything, but I bet no one else around here actually knows their way around that half of you.

[ it sounds really odd, but Johnny doesn't know how else to put it. As for how to pay him back...? ]

You can apologize for callin' me a cripple and a charity case, for starters.

( hey, let's not allow this rika blasphemy to stand. she only tries to hurt people who try to hurt yuuta in the first place! and the only reason that yuuta and johnny are as ambulatory as they are right now, given how relatively soon it was after the operation in godsblood, is a testament to the efficacy of reverse cursed energy. it had taken him some time to regain his strength and powers, and it would take time for the healing to set them to rights, but it at the very least cut down weeks of painful recovery to a few (admittedly uncomfortable, but at least tenable) days.

yuuta is quick to pick up that her response isn't a swift and unswerving refusal. his eyes brighten, and his mouth opens just in time to say something exactly like what he had just said when she tosses that out of hand. the words die in his throat, and he shrinks back a few inches, worrying his hands together. he's not really used to doing something like this and expecting anything from it — it was just something that went without saying, doing a kindness for someone as you hoped they might for you if your positions were reversed. he supposes he'd joked with toge and maki about them footing the bill the next time they all went out for lunch together, but that was about it...

wait. well, that's an idea, maybe? yuuta's the type to let bygones be bygones — he's not all that torn up about hayame shooting an arrow at him, even if rika was still uneasy to let him anywhere near the jinba. )

You can, um... well, if you ever catch something more than you can eat down here, you can give that to me as payment, if you want? I'm sure I can find someone up there who can cook it into something nice, and I'll never turn down a good meal.

( he looks beseeching. )

The technique I use — ( and he realizes, wow, he is really not qualified to explain reverse cursed energy technique! he'll probably make it worse if he tries. he thinks back to ieiri-sensei's lessons on it, thinking of what might allay some of her concerns. ) It just boosts and speeds up the natural healing of your body. So it - hopefully won't be too weird for you.

[... Hayame doesn't want this.

Standing there, listening to their responses to her request that they name their prices... She understands very well in that moment that she wants to refuse their chosen costs and walk (limp) back into the mists to lick her wounds in peace. The cripple wants an apology for being called what he is. Should she apologize for thinking the sky is blue, or that grass is green? The exorcist at least is reasonable, even if she doubts he really means what he asks for and has just thrown something out to pacify her rather than take the debt seriously... But now they've come as a set, and she doesn't want to accept.

She has bowed her head countless times in her life. Growing up as property, a valuable investment that would only be profitable if she could be sold to humans in the end, Hayame had learned early on in her life how to bow and scrape and apologize for mistakes, failures, and offenses. She has swallowed her pride and her own thoughts to do so even when she didn't think fault was hers, because hers was simply a society of performative regret. But this isn't her world, she was supposed to be free, she was supposed to be able to choose for herself-

But now... She needs this healing, no matter how much she hates that. No, it was disingenuous to say that she needed it... she wanted it, because without it... How will she track down and prove to that man that he had made a mistake breaking his word to her, not trusting her by his side in battle? Who else in the Pleroma could do such a thing as this, just heal... The idea of their hands upon her makes her skin crawl, her body tense, her jaw tighten and a look that is almost... disgust? fear? almost show through on her face. Her fingers curl into fists that quake just slightly with frustration and shame.]

- You may have a third of my game this month.

[First, Yuuta, addressed cold and clean. Easy. Done. But when it comes to the next...

Hayame swallows.

As if the act physically pains her (and technically, it does, straining how her weight settles on her damaged foreleg, stretching the sword wound, jostling her fracture) she bows low from the "waist", her long ebon mane slipping over her shoulder and her eyes locked balefully on the ground in front of the cripple's wheeler chair, his feet and shoes.]

I... apologize... for maligning your character. It is obvious now that you intend to make use of yourself.

[Though her head stays bowed, as is proper, waiting to raise it only once the apology is accepted... That seems to be all she intends to say, each word forced out heavy and somewhat resented.]

[ oh, shit, someone's here. Tusk blips out of existence at once, and Johnny whips his head around to look at the newcomer. A woman he only sort of knows - first from a vague memory in Venera, and then later as a cooperator in the mission, though their stations were quite separate. She's got a bunch of food; he assumes it's not intended for him, but someone else in the makeshift sick bay. ]

Oh, you're... Caitlyn, right? [ he shifts in his seat slightly, though the motion causes him to flinch slightly as the sheets graze his burned hands. ] Uh, yeah. I die hard.

[ which has caused him some small amount of guilt in his life, but that's neither here nor there. ]

Same to you, though.

[ he's the opposite: getting around the main portion of Greentruth is difficult enough for him that he's found it's easier for him to spend the majority of his day down here. The inherent danger of being on even ground with the giant beasts that live in the woods is a caveat he's willing to accept for a little more freedom. Plus, this setting in general is more familiar to him. It can, occasionally, be a bitter reminder of all the things he can no longer do, simple chores he took for granted; for the most part, though, it's nostalgic, and he prefers the company of the animals, even if these particular animals took some getting used to.

The general privacy is another thing he enjoys, and so Johnny jumps a bit when he hears the voice, not having expected to see anyone that wasn't the owner or another farmhand - though he relaxes when he looks over and recognizes the owner. His hat, though safely retrieved from its hungry captor, is now covered in a generous amount of dino slobber, so he just drops it in his lap as he glances away at the culprit again. Self-conscious, maybe. ]

Never met an animal that didn't want food. [ even dinosaurs, it seems. His gaze flicks over to Rand again, and his limp, specifically. ] I guess you survived Godsblood, too.

[ Well. At least he's not going to get scolded for trying to leave!! He watches Syrlya carefully as he traverses the room, raising an eyebrow as he approaches with the chair. ]

I don't really need "assistance..." [ although he knows Syr's just using that as an excuse for... something. He's not sure what. ] Did you want something?

[ he's not so noble that he doesn't take some satisfaction in seeing her swallow her words with great difficulty. In fact, he's just petty enough that he allows himself to relish her obvious resentment. After all, it's not like this is actually hurting her. It's for her own good, in fact, to apologize to him and get her injuries checked out. If Gyro was here, he'd have some cool one-liner to drop in response to all this, but, alas, he's only Johnny, and he can't think of anything. He just nods his head. ]

Now you're learning. [ with that said, however, he gestures upwards, a little bit hastily. ] Hey, quit doing that - you're gonna hurt yourself worse putting weight on that foot. I don't get that Japanese bowing thing, anyway.

[ the last part is muttered as an afterthought. forgive him his ignorance... ]

... For starters, tell me what happened with your shoulder. This one, [ he says, gesturing mildly to the injured part - she has two sets, so he may as well be thorough. ]

Mm. [Syrlya releases the wheelchair when it's by the bed.] Really to see how you were faring. Things had been... chaotic.

[He gestures to the wheelchair.] But it seems like you were on your way out, so I assume you don't want to talk in here.

[Now you’re learning, he says, as if he were one of the many groomsman that had ruled her life since fillyhood, tasked by the stable master to ensure his prized armed jinba grew up strong, healthy, well-brushed, and well-mannered. Good girl, Hayame. She can still feel the human hand on her head forcing her head down to the proper depth of bow, the same that rewarded her obedient lack of resistance by gentling into a pat and proffering a slice of half-dried fruit on a palm.

She’d been so stupid and blind then. Now… she’s just angry. If she didn’t cut her nails to the quick to keep them from interfering in her archery they might draw blood from how fiercely they dig into her palms, but she forces herself to swallow her pride one more time, telling herself it might not be the last. She just had to endure it—]

There is a Kenoma who moves the earth with just a motion of his hands.

[Grudgingly, her humiliation still painfully clear in the tight hold of her body and the grit of her teeth, she straightens up while trying to bite down the accompanying twinges of pain.]

When my arrow hit his shoulder instead of his heart, he ripped a trench into it right in the middle of my stride… and my leg was pulled from its proper place.

[… Dislocated, she must mean, ripped from its moorings by the weight of her heavy body tumbling three fourths into a ditch and the one leg left hyper extended on what used to be the solid ground. The entire shoulder is swollen still, throbbing and aching, because-]

I managed to force it back into place.

[Mostly. There are other things she does not mention. The scrapes and cuts along that leg and the other foreleg from the rubble and scrambling, unlike the sword wound across her rump, are not particularly aggravated or re-opened by her movement, so they’ve already started to scab over. There is also a rather deep notch cut into her hoof from when she’d had to rear up in alarm and try to ward off a sudden stab of a blade, but…

She falls silent, holding herself all together too tensely in anticipation for the fact that the cripple might be about to lay hands on her.

And as much as she hated it, would hate anyone for daring to say it aloud…

There is not much difference in her equine body language then between her and an abused mare that knows the crack of the whip more than the stroke of a hand.]

[She'll just walk over and set down the basket where he can get at it. She doesn't really know the guy, but this is just how she is. She's...just nice?]

Yes. I...brought this for you. Assuming you feel up to eating.

[It's got to be better than what counts as 'hospital food' on Horos, right?]

I never got to really check on you after Venera.

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my foolish heart...

closed to hayame and yuuta

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