[The hand on his throat is keeping him from moving. He's on his back and he can't move. He's on his back and there's nothing but the sky overhead. He's on his back and his chest hurts and there's a vampire, a vampire, he's in a fight and he's on his back and he doesn't — no, he doesn't, he doesn't like this, it's not good, he's trapped on his back and he doesn't like this anymore.
He doesn't need to say the words for Star to know when to act, or what to do. He didn't then, and he doesn't now. The need for it simply surges within him like a silent scream, and all of a sudden the world is quiet and still.
Time stops.
His very own kingdom. He's not an intruder in it any longer, is he? No, he invaded the kingdom like a deadly pathogen, like the same parasite that got into his mother's soul and started to drain her life away. He came in and took it away from Dio Brando and now it's his, only his, because as far as he knows there's no one else in the world like him — anymore.
And yet for a second he finds himself just staring up at Alucard, even through the way his skin is crawling and his nerves are buzzing. He doesn't look like Dio. Even like this, there's something soft in his features. He's no less a predator; his fangs are sharp and glistening and deadly. But he's not Dio, and this is only a fight, not a deathmatch.
With his next available second, he makes himself breathe. It's silent, but nothing is going to come of it. He's the one who stopped time, anyway. Even if Dio were here (he's not), he'd be the one caught in it.
Dio had five seconds, then ten. He's pretty sure, though, that he himself won't get nearly that long, not human and weak the way he is.
So with Star's help, he pushes Alucard off of himself, rolling him onto his back with his limbs all still frozen in the same position, and then pushes himself up and flees halfway across the rooftop just as —
Time resumes.]
— Hgh!
[The exhaustion hits him like a hard punch to the gut. Stopping time takes a toll whether he's in control of it or not. Maybe he just hadn't noticed the last time through all the adrenaline. Maybe it uses a lot of chroma, and that compounds it.
Regardless, he weaves on his feet a little, but stands strong, already braced for Alucard's recovery from his current situation, which he expects will be faster than he could ever anticipate.]
[In one moment, he had Jotaro right where he wanted him, pinned to the roof, waiting to see what he would do next. Then, in the next moment, he's pushed back and Jotaro is all the way across the roof somehow.
When did that happen? Anyone that fast, he should have noticed. So what is it?]
Told you. First I fight the human. Now'm fighting the vampire.
[He's slurring his words a little, just enough to make each word a little messy around the edges, readying himself for another of those rapid leap-tackles.]
[Alucard crouches and watches Jotaro carefully, his eyes narrowed. Whatever Jotaro had done, it's taken its toll. Something to do with his Stand, maybe? How interesting.
Well. He just needs to find out more for himself.
Rushing forward, he goes to kick sharply at Jotaro's ankle before reaching to throw him down so he can put the young man into a headlock.]
[This isn't a fight to the death, a small voice inside tries to remind himself. This isn't like what it was with Dio. You can make it stop.
Easy, too easy, to lose sight of that. But there isn't time to think about it right now, not when Alucard presses in again to take the advantage. He's partially ready for the leg sweep because he's seen that trick before, and jumps it before it can connect to his ankle; he's not ready for the throw that, yet again, puts him on his back, and this time even more immobilized than he was before.
History repeats itself. Anxiety flares, and Star stops the world for him, and he struggles his way out of the hold in order to retreat, leaving Alucard where he'd been.
But again, getting out from under him means the necessity of moving him from where he'd been before Star had stopped time, which means in the instant it resumes, Alucard's world will have changed again, too.]
[It happens again! It's shocking, but so utterly fascinating that Alucard isn't even frustrated. There's a curious look he gives as he glances over at Jotaro again, his brows raised. It isn't speed, or teleportation. So what is it? His surroundings are unchanged, but the last time Alucard was in a different position. Jotaro keeping a distance suddenly.
So it has to be--]
You stop time.
[Alucard sounds almost delighted at the conclusion.]
But you can only do it in a short burst. And it takes a toll, doesn't it?
[He doesn't stop time, but he does stop, half-staring at Alucard in a way that probably makes him look like he's just been slapped with a raw fish. Never mind the exhaustion or the chroma drain, never mind the fight, even; not even Sanguis is powerful enough to divert his attention away from the bizarre wonder that is the sentence that just came out of the vampire's mouth.
You stop time.
He watched him use it, and he figured it out. He tested it, and he figured it out. And the look on his face, the sound of his voice, it's triumphant and almost giddy, and for a second he wonders —
Is that what Kakyoin sounded like?
He doesn't know, and he'll never know. He's probably wrong. But deep down, he wants to believe that it was — that Kakyoin, in that moment, had sounded as proud and as bold as he'd been when he'd first unleashed his Hierophant Green on the plane against Tower of Gray.
That's a beautiful thought.
So is Alucard, really.]
Yare yare...you're really something else. You're a dangerous guy, Alucard...working out something like that.
I'm an excellent fighter on top of everything else. But you -- your power is exceptional and devastating. You should be more careful when you use it, Jotaro.
[And Jotaro is smart, strong, with a strange talent of encyclopedic knowledge on certain topics. It's like a strange combination of Sypha's delight in books and Trevor's excel in battle techniques.
No, he shouldn't think about them. It's bittersweet.
Jotaro is worn, and he will have to strain to use his time stopping ability. The battle is more or less won, but he's going to ensure that they both know it.
Alucard shifts forward, using his supernatural speed to get behind Jotaro. He's sliding his arms to hook around his shoulders, then placing his hands behind Jotaro's neck, not quite a strangle hold but determined to force him down and keep him down.]
[Alucard moves in the blink of an eye, one second in front of him and the next behind. Star Platinum responds, rears back with a roar to swing and defend his user —
And in a flash of purple light, vanishes, spent of the chroma necessary to keep him maintained after two consecutive time stops have taken their toll on Jotaro.
Like this, then, he's defenseless and he knows it, arms useless with the way that Alucard has them hooked and unable to struggle free from the chain link loops of his arms, and yet something strange happens even as he continues to struggle — an inexplicable temporal hiccup, a fraction of an instant of stopped time as inside him, Star Platinum continues to fight to protect him with any and every resource he has at his disposal.
He's trapped, and he knows it.
When he kicks backward at Alucard's leg, the blow is slow and feeble, but the spirit of rebellious pride is still there in it anyway.]
[And from Alucard's tone, he means it. Slowly, he loosens his hold, and he considers for a moment. They're both worn, Jotaro especially, so he crouches down and changes it more to an embrace to begin further moonlacing.]
[When the hold loosens, he sags, making it all the more apparent that he was really only staying in place at that point because Alucard was holding him that way. It's hard not to feel a little stung at the way he'd been worn down and bested, but even through his sluggish thoughts, he's able to remind himself that it wasn't a real fight anyway, and that maybe he's learned something more important from this, after all.
Now he knows how many times he can stop time before his chroma runs out, and Star gets trapped inside him. Now he has a baseline, a frame of reference. Maybe if he moonlaced more, he could push it farther. Something to think about, for later.
For now, though, he simply slumps against Alucard, wolf ears drooping and his tail thumping softly against his leg.]
This one went a lot better for me than th' last one.
[He closes his eyes, every exhale like a sigh.]
How did you know...? How'd you figure it out, what I was...doing...?
[Turning his head, he rests his cheek against Jotaro's shoulder. It's to rest, he thinks to himself, and knows even that's a weak reason. No, truthfully, he likes this closeness. The moonlacing feels warm and comforting, and it makes him afraid in a way.]
The first time, I was suddenly in a different position. You were far away. I wondered if it was speed or teleportation, but you would have just escaped my hold if that was the case. You had to physically move me. No time had passed in that moment.
[His arms squeeze just a fraction, close to a hug, even if he's shy to it.]
[It's warm like this. He's not even doing anything, really, except being permissive; Alucard is holding him, and it's not like he wasn't the one insisting that they do precisely this once the fight was over to rejuvenate and heal, but he'd genuinely thought it'd be for the sake of helping out Alucard, not restoring himself from deprivation.
It doesn't matter. It feels nice, and if he thinks too hard about it, it feels as though something will shatter and be gone forever.]
And you won. So you get to bite me, I guess. Drink my blood. However you want that to work.
[Almost absently, he turns his focus inward a minute, trying to gauge the way the wolf within him feels. This is the precise opposite of aggression and bloodshed, and yet he's surprised to find that even the Sanguis is unexpectedly content with this.
It takes him a minute to work out why, but once he grasps it, he thinks he's got it right. It's the possessiveness, that same territorial sensation that had him trying to rub his scent into everyone he'd subconsciously claimed as his own.
Evidently, it goes both ways. His Sanguis, it seems, relishes the act of being possessed just as much as it does being the one to do the possessing to begin with.]
[Oh. Hmm. Maybe that would make sense, wouldn't it? Maybe instead of running tests, vampires can tell by the taste. Maybe bad-tasting blood is a sign of bad health. He wonders how specifically calibrated a taste like that can get, even...
...and almost misses the actually important part of the remark.]
[He's quiet a minute, hesitant. There are plenty of reasons to be apprehensive about something like this, and he's acutely aware of all of them. But a bet is a bet, and he would never back down from that. Besides, he's halfway curious to see just how Alucard does this trick as it is.
So he works a hand free and brings the fingers up to his mouth, catching the side of his index finger against the sharpest of his wolf teeth and worrying at the skin until it breaks.
It's not like he hasn't had much, much worse. He barely even registers the sting, as he tips his hand to keep the welling blood from running, and offers it in Alucard's direction.]
[There's a pause as he watches, his eyes reddening slightly at the sight of the blood, the smell of it. Fresh blood is nothing in comparison to stored. Leaning in, he breathes through his nose as he catches the tip of Jotaro's finger into his mouth, giving it a generous lick before sitting back and swallowing.
There's a pause as he considers, then sighs softly.]
Your diet is shit. ...But other than that, you're fairly healthy.
Somebody else always did. Mom. Or I'd have money to buy something. Then on our trip Jiji always handled it.
[Cuddling with a person-shaped human being, he discovers, produces significantly more chroma than hand-holding or even wrapping his arms around a wolfdog. Already he's feeling significantly better...
And he's just going to. Pretend like that's not the case. For a while. He's warm, and it's weirdly comfortable to just lie still like this, and if he says something about it, he'll have to move.
So he's just not going to say anything about it.]
...Grilling. S'about the only thing I'm good at doing. Meat and a grill, I can do that.
[It does feel better this way. As a wolf, it was fine. Acceptable. A comfort between people becoming acquainted. This was closer, maybe dangerous, but good all the same.
He closes his eyes, and listens to Jotaro's heartbeat. It's oddly comforting.]
It's better than nothing.
...Try to eat better. We can work together to find other things that you can do.
[There's a small part of him that doubts how much help he's likely to really be, being a guy who drinks blood from the 1400s and all — but then it occurs to him belatedly that if Alucard's mom was human, then in theory she must've eaten something for all those years. So maybe he's got some experience with human food and nutritional needs, after all. Especially if she was a doctor, too. She'd have taken care of herself, sure.]
I...guess I can try. Maybe find a book. They make cookbooks, right, to tell you how to cook things. They'd have directions, I guess I could follow a set of directions.
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He doesn't need to say the words for Star to know when to act, or what to do. He didn't then, and he doesn't now. The need for it simply surges within him like a silent scream, and all of a sudden the world is quiet and still.
Time stops.
His very own kingdom. He's not an intruder in it any longer, is he? No, he invaded the kingdom like a deadly pathogen, like the same parasite that got into his mother's soul and started to drain her life away. He came in and took it away from Dio Brando and now it's his, only his, because as far as he knows there's no one else in the world like him — anymore.
And yet for a second he finds himself just staring up at Alucard, even through the way his skin is crawling and his nerves are buzzing. He doesn't look like Dio. Even like this, there's something soft in his features. He's no less a predator; his fangs are sharp and glistening and deadly. But he's not Dio, and this is only a fight, not a deathmatch.
With his next available second, he makes himself breathe. It's silent, but nothing is going to come of it. He's the one who stopped time, anyway. Even if Dio were here (he's not), he'd be the one caught in it.
Dio had five seconds, then ten. He's pretty sure, though, that he himself won't get nearly that long, not human and weak the way he is.
So with Star's help, he pushes Alucard off of himself, rolling him onto his back with his limbs all still frozen in the same position, and then pushes himself up and flees halfway across the rooftop just as —
Time resumes.]
— Hgh!
[The exhaustion hits him like a hard punch to the gut. Stopping time takes a toll whether he's in control of it or not. Maybe he just hadn't noticed the last time through all the adrenaline. Maybe it uses a lot of chroma, and that compounds it.
Regardless, he weaves on his feet a little, but stands strong, already braced for Alucard's recovery from his current situation, which he expects will be faster than he could ever anticipate.]
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[In one moment, he had Jotaro right where he wanted him, pinned to the roof, waiting to see what he would do next. Then, in the next moment, he's pushed back and Jotaro is all the way across the roof somehow.
When did that happen? Anyone that fast, he should have noticed. So what is it?]
How did you...? [He stands up, looking curious.]
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[He's slurring his words a little, just enough to make each word a little messy around the edges, readying himself for another of those rapid leap-tackles.]
Thought that's what y'wanted t'see.
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[Alucard crouches and watches Jotaro carefully, his eyes narrowed. Whatever Jotaro had done, it's taken its toll. Something to do with his Stand, maybe? How interesting.
Well. He just needs to find out more for himself.
Rushing forward, he goes to kick sharply at Jotaro's ankle before reaching to throw him down so he can put the young man into a headlock.]
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Easy, too easy, to lose sight of that. But there isn't time to think about it right now, not when Alucard presses in again to take the advantage. He's partially ready for the leg sweep because he's seen that trick before, and jumps it before it can connect to his ankle; he's not ready for the throw that, yet again, puts him on his back, and this time even more immobilized than he was before.
History repeats itself. Anxiety flares, and Star stops the world for him, and he struggles his way out of the hold in order to retreat, leaving Alucard where he'd been.
But again, getting out from under him means the necessity of moving him from where he'd been before Star had stopped time, which means in the instant it resumes, Alucard's world will have changed again, too.]
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So it has to be--]
You stop time.
[Alucard sounds almost delighted at the conclusion.]
But you can only do it in a short burst. And it takes a toll, doesn't it?
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[He doesn't stop time, but he does stop, half-staring at Alucard in a way that probably makes him look like he's just been slapped with a raw fish. Never mind the exhaustion or the chroma drain, never mind the fight, even; not even Sanguis is powerful enough to divert his attention away from the bizarre wonder that is the sentence that just came out of the vampire's mouth.
You stop time.
He watched him use it, and he figured it out. He tested it, and he figured it out. And the look on his face, the sound of his voice, it's triumphant and almost giddy, and for a second he wonders —
Is that what Kakyoin sounded like?
He doesn't know, and he'll never know. He's probably wrong. But deep down, he wants to believe that it was — that Kakyoin, in that moment, had sounded as proud and as bold as he'd been when he'd first unleashed his Hierophant Green on the plane against Tower of Gray.
That's a beautiful thought.
So is Alucard, really.]
Yare yare...you're really something else. You're a dangerous guy, Alucard...working out something like that.
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[And Jotaro is smart, strong, with a strange talent of encyclopedic knowledge on certain topics. It's like a strange combination of Sypha's delight in books and Trevor's excel in battle techniques.
No, he shouldn't think about them. It's bittersweet.
Jotaro is worn, and he will have to strain to use his time stopping ability. The battle is more or less won, but he's going to ensure that they both know it.
Alucard shifts forward, using his supernatural speed to get behind Jotaro. He's sliding his arms to hook around his shoulders, then placing his hands behind Jotaro's neck, not quite a strangle hold but determined to force him down and keep him down.]
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And in a flash of purple light, vanishes, spent of the chroma necessary to keep him maintained after two consecutive time stops have taken their toll on Jotaro.
Like this, then, he's defenseless and he knows it, arms useless with the way that Alucard has them hooked and unable to struggle free from the chain link loops of his arms, and yet something strange happens even as he continues to struggle — an inexplicable temporal hiccup, a fraction of an instant of stopped time as inside him, Star Platinum continues to fight to protect him with any and every resource he has at his disposal.
He's trapped, and he knows it.
When he kicks backward at Alucard's leg, the blow is slow and feeble, but the spirit of rebellious pride is still there in it anyway.]
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[And from Alucard's tone, he means it. Slowly, he loosens his hold, and he considers for a moment. They're both worn, Jotaro especially, so he crouches down and changes it more to an embrace to begin further moonlacing.]
I would hate to do actual battle with you.
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[When the hold loosens, he sags, making it all the more apparent that he was really only staying in place at that point because Alucard was holding him that way. It's hard not to feel a little stung at the way he'd been worn down and bested, but even through his sluggish thoughts, he's able to remind himself that it wasn't a real fight anyway, and that maybe he's learned something more important from this, after all.
Now he knows how many times he can stop time before his chroma runs out, and Star gets trapped inside him. Now he has a baseline, a frame of reference. Maybe if he moonlaced more, he could push it farther. Something to think about, for later.
For now, though, he simply slumps against Alucard, wolf ears drooping and his tail thumping softly against his leg.]
This one went a lot better for me than th' last one.
[He closes his eyes, every exhale like a sigh.]
How did you know...? How'd you figure it out, what I was...doing...?
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The first time, I was suddenly in a different position. You were far away. I wondered if it was speed or teleportation, but you would have just escaped my hold if that was the case. You had to physically move me. No time had passed in that moment.
[His arms squeeze just a fraction, close to a hug, even if he's shy to it.]
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[It's warm like this. He's not even doing anything, really, except being permissive; Alucard is holding him, and it's not like he wasn't the one insisting that they do precisely this once the fight was over to rejuvenate and heal, but he'd genuinely thought it'd be for the sake of helping out Alucard, not restoring himself from deprivation.
It doesn't matter. It feels nice, and if he thinks too hard about it, it feels as though something will shatter and be gone forever.]
And you won. So you get to bite me, I guess. Drink my blood. However you want that to work.
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[He wants to. He'd be lying if he said he didn't, but fresh blood after so long... that would be marvelous.]
You can just prick your finger. Even that would be enough. But I'd never ask you to allow a vampire to bite you. Not after the vampire you fought.
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[Almost absently, he turns his focus inward a minute, trying to gauge the way the wolf within him feels. This is the precise opposite of aggression and bloodshed, and yet he's surprised to find that even the Sanguis is unexpectedly content with this.
It takes him a minute to work out why, but once he grasps it, he thinks he's got it right. It's the possessiveness, that same territorial sensation that had him trying to rub his scent into everyone he'd subconsciously claimed as his own.
Evidently, it goes both ways. His Sanguis, it seems, relishes the act of being possessed just as much as it does being the one to do the possessing to begin with.]
Is it because you're hungry?
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But it was more... [Alucard sighs against him, closing his eyes.] I wanted to check your health.
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[Oh. Hmm. Maybe that would make sense, wouldn't it? Maybe instead of running tests, vampires can tell by the taste. Maybe bad-tasting blood is a sign of bad health. He wonders how specifically calibrated a taste like that can get, even...
...and almost misses the actually important part of the remark.]
...You wanted to check me over?
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I wanted to know how you were doing. Coming here, recovering from what you experienced... I wasn't sure how you were doing.
It's easy to check this way.
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So he works a hand free and brings the fingers up to his mouth, catching the side of his index finger against the sharpest of his wolf teeth and worrying at the skin until it breaks.
It's not like he hasn't had much, much worse. He barely even registers the sting, as he tips his hand to keep the welling blood from running, and offers it in Alucard's direction.]
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There's a pause as he considers, then sighs softly.]
Your diet is shit. ...But other than that, you're fairly healthy.
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[He shivers a little when his fingertip slides between Alucard's lips, not prepared for the heat of his tongue winding around it.]
So you're saying I can't just live on rice, beer, and cigarettes, huh...
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[He snorts against Jotaro's shoulder.]
Shocking, I know. Have you never made a meal for yourself before?
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[Cuddling with a person-shaped human being, he discovers, produces significantly more chroma than hand-holding or even wrapping his arms around a wolfdog. Already he's feeling significantly better...
And he's just going to. Pretend like that's not the case. For a while. He's warm, and it's weirdly comfortable to just lie still like this, and if he says something about it, he'll have to move.
So he's just not going to say anything about it.]
...Grilling. S'about the only thing I'm good at doing. Meat and a grill, I can do that.
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He closes his eyes, and listens to Jotaro's heartbeat. It's oddly comforting.]
It's better than nothing.
...Try to eat better. We can work together to find other things that you can do.
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[There's a small part of him that doubts how much help he's likely to really be, being a guy who drinks blood from the 1400s and all — but then it occurs to him belatedly that if Alucard's mom was human, then in theory she must've eaten something for all those years. So maybe he's got some experience with human food and nutritional needs, after all. Especially if she was a doctor, too. She'd have taken care of herself, sure.]
I...guess I can try. Maybe find a book. They make cookbooks, right, to tell you how to cook things. They'd have directions, I guess I could follow a set of directions.
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