False Confidence ; Jotakak

You're Nicotine, a Candy Dream, Addicted to a Memory

CW- EXPLICIT CONTENT! 18+ Chapter

In the early evening, we pulled up in the secret location. We anchored the boat and climbed out, landing heavily on the sand. It was an isolated island, pristine waters, not a grain of sand out of place. We, excluding Polnareff, were awear that this was the location where we had been instructed to meet Avdol. After recovering in India, Avdol has travelled to the nearest Speedwagon Foundation safe house here in the Red Sea. He'd been living the quiet life, putting the cogs in motion for our next leg of the journey. After we were reunited, Polnareff said he needed some time to recover from the news. He was elated to know his friend was alive, but it was a lot to process, so as the sun began to go down, Polnareff wandered off to sit alone on the beach.

Mister Joestar informed us that we were waiting for a submarine to dock. With any luck, this vessel would offer us a safer and mostly incognito voyage to Egypt. We had tea and a few snacks in the safe house, but when Polnareff didn't return, Avdol went to look for him, leaving Mister Joestar, Jotaro and Myself alone. The three of us tracked back to the speed boat to retrieve all our luggage so it'd be ready for when the sub arrived. The speedboat would be stored at the safe house, and we'd take the sub to the next checkpoint. I was impressed that Mister Joestar was able to afford an entire submarine. Maybe it was the property of the Speedwagon Foundation, and we were borrowing it, but it was hard to know.

It was getting late, and Polnareff nor Avdol had returned. Mister Joestar was worried. "I'm going to look for them, Jotaro, double-check they didn't go back to the boat. I'm going to scan the beach, perhaps check the other side of the island." He equipped a pair of handheld transceivers, giving one to Jotaro and tuning the other. "If you see them, give me a buzz." He attached the radio to his pants pocket. In an instant, the man broke into a jog and took off down the beach. With no other instruction, I followed Jotaro back to the boat.

We searched it too to bottom, when no sign of life turned up, Jotaro sent the signal to Mister Joestar. "Hey, old man, they're not here."

"Okay, stay with the boat; I'll keep looking, over!"

Jotaro grunted. "You're not in the fucking military."

"Roger!"

Jotaro placed the receiver on a surface aboard the boat. "Good grief." He said under his breath. While this was happening, I sat in the cockpit at the ship's bow; I watched the stars above me, noticing how bright they shone out in the middle of the ocean. I heard Jotaro approach; he sat down beside me.

"Hey," I said softly.

"Hey," He sighed

"How are you?"

"Fine."

I listened to the waves crash against the side of the ship. "Good, to have Avdol back," I said casually, looking for something, anything to break the silence.

"Yeah,"

Small talk was getting nowhere. I wanted--I needed to drop the hint that I required a bit more intimacy right now. "What are you going to do when we defeat DIO and go home?"

Jotaro chuckled. "At least you're hopeful."

I turned my body around to face him. "A-are you not hopeful?" I questioned.

He shrugged. "I mean, of course, I'm hopeful. Hope I'd all I've got. But—we don't know anything about DIO's stand or how many followers he has stationed around the world, waiting for us." He paused for a while. "What was it like? Being under his spell?"

He hadn't had a chance to talk about it yet, but I suppose it was pretty important. "I can't remember anything much, really." I sighed. "It was really like hypnosis. I was under his total control; I wasn't myself; I was a puppet. I might as well have been made of wood."