standless | TESTRUNNING POST

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ryslig,
test run

TESTRUNNING POST

[RYSLIG ARRIVAL - V. 1]

"Kgh...KACK..."

He was coughing.

It didn't quite register right away that this meant he was breathing. Jonathan was too busy coughing salt water from his stinging lungs, his arms and body covered extensively with scratches and cuts. There was sand under his hands though, he realized. The ocean water was lapping against him, and there was sand. How odd though, Jonathan thought. After all, a moment ago...

...

A moment ago he was dead. "...Wasn't I dying?" He thought to no one in particular, eyes blinking away the dust of sleep as he forced himself to his feet. Jonathan looked over his hands, the fog around him swirling about. "I was attacked, and..."

Hands flew to his neck, feeling for wounds that were not there. His eyes wide as he looked around, he felt his breathing- so well controlled, normally- fly from control. That's right. He had been dying. Dio had attacked, striking his throat and crippling his ripple and-

Calm yourself. Jonathan swallowed, and Breathed, steadying his focus. Calm. Calm...bring the breathing back into...

....

His breath was steady, but the sensation of the ripple was still gone.

Though it remained steady, Jonathan's thoughts continued to whirl. Had he somehow healed himself after he blacked out, so certain it would be the last time he closed his eyes? Had he somehow survived both that and the explosion, only to lose that power he had worked to master? Only to float...

Here?

...

Dio's head-

"Mngh- If someone were to find Dio, even in this state...He could easily kill them!" Jonathan realized, rushing along the beach. He couldn't be far...He held that man's head so tightly after all, he couldn't..!

"Where..." But then where was he?! "Where-!"

And Where was this!?

[RYSLIG ARRIVAL - V.2]

When he began to regain consciousness, he could feel fabric. Wrapped tightly around his arms and chest, and then buried under another layer of it. His eyes slowly opened and it was to brilliant, almost blinding light.

It caught him so off guard he almost forgot about what he last remembered. For that short, sweet moment until then he looked over the surroundings and himself. It was almost like a hospital- almost, he thought, because of how brilliant it all seemed. Almost snow white, the walls were- his bed metal, and the table beside it similar. He half expected to be greeted with similar light at the windows- but the curtains were drawn tightly, so tightly that not a drop of light could possibly pass through.

And the bandages! So many! He hadn't seen himself so injured since-

"...DIO-!"

The shout escaped without thought- and mind reeling, his hands went to his throat. He could speak- he could breathe, yet somehow he could not feel the vibrations of the ripple through his being. Had he been permanently injured, in the explosion of the ship? He supposed that in itself would be a miracle, given he had expected to die.

But then where was Dio? And where was this for that matter? No hospital in England could have possibly looked so clean, but how far must he have been carried by the water then? He had been so certain of his death too...the fading sounds of Dio's desperate pleas, the quieter sound of the chest locking shut as Erina and that little infant child locked themselves into safety...

There was someone outside the door he realized. He could see a shadow somehow through the window (and god! Windows, in a hospital door!).
"...nurse?" He questioned politely, keeping his voice steady. "...Is that a nurse? Please, I must ask you a question if I may..!"

...

It somehow feels that might Not be a nurse behind the door.

[INTO THE CITY - RYSLIG SETTING, BAVAN]

The world was Massive.

Bavan City, when he heard the name, was something he expected to liken to London. But instead despite the thick fog that clung to the air and blotted the sun, there were lights aplenty. Brilliant and searing, so much more-so than the gas lamps of London's streets- and that was only the street lights!

The lights above the stores! The lights from the windows! Piercing the fog with their warmth, as if to chase them away with their own hopes and experiences from high above!

And so high they were, he marveled- the buildings towering into the sky, farther than even the highest cathedral. Filled with windows, which were filled with lights, and Jonathan's very neck strained to try and make out the top through the haze. He-

"Ah-"

He nearly crashed into someone. "Oh- I'm so sorry miss- please, allow me to help..." The poor woman's bags- paper he noted, and almost boxy even- had fallen, and he made quick work of regathering them. "Here you are- I hope nothing has been damaged..."

"Oh it's alright...Thank you for that sir- now, where..." Sparing little more time than necessary for the man, the young woman peered around him before breaking into a smile. "Ah! Erik! Casey! There you both are, I've been searching all over...."

The woman's voice faded as Jonathan watched her go- joining with a young man, and a child who seemed little more than a year old, currently held carefully in the man's arms. Was it distance that made the voice fade? The fog?

....his heart..?

Left in silence, the marvel for the city came tumbling down as Jonathan stood in the middle of the walkway, unable to even move.

He wondered...

They would have been alright...right?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Only Jonathan Joestar would wash up in something that inappropriate to the weather and general climate, not that he was any better in the slightest. But his coat at least provided him a good bit of warmth even if he would potentially change the rest of it later, it all depended on if it were possible to fix these clothes somewhere around here.

Ah, of course he'd elucidate on that sort of thing. He's taking a deep breath and letting his gaze wander the buildings of this place once more. "Outside of this city and... I do have to ask, Jonathan, what was the last thing you remember before you wound up washed ashore?" Whether he has to inform him of what happened or not, though he'd much rather not have to do such a thing.

Ah...

Then outside of this 'world', or however they were putting it. Jonathan observes his friend's behavior with an eagle's eye, the way Speedwagon has taken a breath in and looked away just in time to answer that grim question. It does not speak well for what the other knows, and he hesitates.

For how could he simply tell his friend, that last he remembers he had been dying? They've already come to this place, and heard such grim omens surrounding them- but to simply say, 'Dio returned, and I could not stop him without a cost'?

Perhaps his own expression is giving him away now. The way his own expression softens and hardens all at once, eyes distant as he swallows. "Speedwagon..." And another pause, as he closes his eyes. "I... ...Would it mean anything," he decides to ask vaguely, paining as it is to skirt about a subject with such dishonesty, "If I were to say it was the evening that Erina and I left for our honeymoon?"

It would have made it a lot less awkward than it currently is, he could have taken some solace in knowing that not even death would keep him down for very long. What he had heard in the papers after that night, after what he had heard when Erina had washed ashore on those islands...

He's quiet as he waits for the answer, though he can tell from his peripheral and those expressions that he's holding the same answer that he himself was. He knew he had been dying, or had died, either one.

"It certainly does, my friend." His posture is relaxing a bit once again as his gaze returns to him once again, at least there's one less thing has would need to keep from him. "Would you... like to know what happened after that night? I don't know much before I was brought here, but I can at least tell you what the papers said as well as my own correspondences on the matter."

He hesitates- but only for one reason. "...For myself at least, I feel I may know the answer already," Jonathan admits, managing a small, sad smile all the same. "...But for Erina..."

It is a question that has burned at him since he first awoke, and the inability to Know has been crippling. "Please, Speedwagon- I must know! Did Erina...Did she and that child survive?"

There's a faint bit of a cringe there as he says the first part, he would be correct in that assumption. As far as they know, or as far as he is aware. But Erina, Erina is an entirely different situation.

A small bit of a smile plays on his lips and he's slowly nodding. "As far as was found, only she and that child survived from that ship. Washed up on the Canary Islands and was brought home after. She... ah, if it helps, it wasn't just one child that was saved that night." Whether Jonathan knows that or not, he hasn't the foggiest.

That, undoubtedly, comes as a shock. Immediately the anxious grief has been replaced with elation- joy at the confirmation that the lives he had hoped could be saved, would be saved, were. Yet just as quickly there comes confusion, and Jonathan stares for a good second or so before he can even speak. "There... ...There was another child? ...But I only saw one that night," he insists in astonishment. "The entire ship had been overrun with Dio's undead- that there was another...no, that Erina could even have found another..."

He....

Is a Fool

Jonathan, he adores you and loves you, but holy shit you are an idiot. He's taking a deep breath and shaking his head slowly, but that smile isn't going anywhere any time soon.

"I mean she was with child, you dolt." Oh, there, being blunt is far better getting through to this idiot. As much as he adores him, he also knows there's a time to spell it out and be done with it.

Jonathan...doesn't speak for some time.

It looks very much like he would like to- his jaw practically drops, brows raised as he registers Speedwagon's words. With- But they'd only... He could have sworn the chances of that were...

....

Oh... "...I... ...I would have..?" His voice is uncharacteristically stuck somehow. Oh dear. Hand over his chest as if to clear something from his throat, he thinks he can feel his eyes misting. "...I'm to be a father? ...I... ...I know I cannot be there but..."

But somehow just knowing this much- that this much is able to carry on without him, is a hope. And yet the knowledge of what he's had to leave behind, what must now live without him, it's...

It is heart-breaking in the same way that it is comforting, and he isn't sure what he feels more. "...A child..."

Ah, yes, this gamut of emotions. He's going to give him all the time that he needs, but is keeping a close eye to make sure he doesn't do anything rash or stupid. As much as he trusts him, he also doesn't trust him to not do anything ridiculous in the heat of the moment.

He could comfort him, tell him that there'd be people to keep an eye on the child, but... he's here and he doesn't know if time will continue on without them there or if there's a place to even return to.

"For what it's worth, her will is of iron and I'm sure she'll find a way to make things work." It is Erina after all and he's damn sure that if anyone can pull themselves together, it would be here.

"I would... also promise on keeping on eye on them, but I'm... well, here." And he's not sure how here even works.

"Y...Yes, of course. She's a wonderful woman- and I'm certain her family at the least will do everything in their power as well to help. ...It's...strange. Even though I know there would have been no way for me to change things, I feel responsible... ...I can't be there..."

Ah. But Speedwagon cannot as well, and that announcement draws him from his thoughts. "...I'm being rather selfish, aren't I," he remarks gently. "Dwelling on these things- you were taken from a whole future after all." How could he hold onto such sadness, when Speedwagon had lost so much more simply by waking in this place?

Selfish? Of course not. He wouldn't blame him for any of those thoughts in the slightest, they'd be much the same if their situations were reversed, of that he's quite sure.

He's shaking his head slowly and motioning for Jonathan to follow him, it's probably better if they don't stand in the middle of the street after all.

"It was an uncertain future to begin with, who knows where it might or might not have gone. The plan had been to go to America, see what could be made out there, but taking a little time from it isn't a bad thing." He gets to see his friend here again, after all, so it's not an entirely awful situation.

"Either way, the plan is to make the best of it here while the time is still there. It's a whole new world of possibilities, after all."

"Of course." Just as anything was, the future was uncertain. Both at home, where Speedwagon still lived, and here in this place. He does not say what first comes to mind- that he wishes he could follow, when such a way 'out' is found. A future for those who had one was what had the most priority after all, and as far as either could tell, he did not have one.

Jonathan follows after his friend and thus carries on their conversation more positively, and with genuine interest for that matter. After all, Speedwagon is correct- "That it is- we haven't even left the city, and there is already so much. The vehicles I've seen everyone use here even remind me of your Steam-carriage."

Except, with less...Steam?

Oh, that causes him a small bark of laughter. Ah, yes, his steam-carriage, of course that was the first thing to come to mind. He'd been eyeing the vehicles around this place with genuine curiosity, what they're made of, how they work, that sort of thing. As far as he could tell, it wasn't steam that powered them, which was even more curious.

"I certainly wouldn't mind getting my hands on one of them, they're an intriguing creation. As far as I can tell, they don't use steam, which is... genuinely a curious matter." What would they run on if not steam? Electricity would make some sort of sense, he supposes, but that still had such small applications and certainly not wide-spread last he had checked.

"I feel there'll be many a thing to discover in this place that would confound us far more than just the vehicles and the buildings, but turning down a challenge sounds nothing like either of us."

"Not like us at all, to be certain! I wonder if there could even be a sort of energy here that doesn't exist where we came from...something other than Electricity, or coal..."

No, it's just the future.

...

A thought occurs to him.

"........Speedwagon?"

...

"...Just where have you been staying thus far?"

Why are you asking this question, Jonathan.

He's pausing for a brief moment on that question before he's walking again and slowly shrugging as he continues on.

"Truthfully, I have only been here less than a day, so your guess is as good as mine." ... This is the dumbest thing.

They are the dumbest.

"Hmm...in any other situation, I would offer to find us a hotel but..."

Unfortunately, neither of them have money here.

They are Doomed.

"I assume it's not that difficult to live off of the land until we figure something out." But that's just him, he doesn't really know if Jonathan's that good at the whole mess. O o p s.

"Or there's... less legal ways, if worst comes to worst." NO.

"You know how to camp then, Speedwagon?"

Jonathan is not good at that whole mess.

However, it's better than nothing, especially given the wide-eyed look Speedwagon receives from there. "I should think it wouldn't come to that..!" Whatever...'That' is anyway.

"How would I have traveled otherwise?" He was a poor man, Jonathan, how the hell would he not know how to kind of camp at this point? Honestly.

This is why you have him around, he knows shit. Sometimes.

Oops, stop looking at him like that. He's shrugging again. "Merely a suggestion, as I said, a worst case scenario, not something I would ever offer as a first choice." But if they need to, he certainly doesn't mind reverting to his old self to survive.

"Right, of course!" It really was a silly thought not to have, wasn't it? Regardless, he'd like to keep Speedwagon from turning to old-ways as long as possible. "Well...if our best option is to try to camp about, I suppose that's just what we'll have to do then- it seems like something that could be a fun experience in fact!"

oh boy

Jonathan, boy, what are you even.

"When I say camping, I do mean roughing it outdoors." He's just making sure he knows exactly what he means, good grief. "It's a rough sort of thing, but it's at least an option until we figure something out." Like stealing one of those vehicles also seems like a good idea, or finding a broken one and just appropriating it for their own purposes.

But maybe he shouldn't say that out loud.

"You did say 'living off the land' after all; I would assume it means the bare minimum of things... ..At least until we find what we can do, as you've said. It shames me to say it, but I'm going to have to rely upon you for what is to be done however- the farthest I ever traveled until just recently was if anything Windknight's Lot. Starting from nothing in another country... ...I believe that's something you have the best judgement for."

He certainly can't help a small bit of a laugh at that admittance, he's long since realized that about him. He was a sheltered child, that much he's absolutely certain of.

"If you think I hadn't long since realized that, then you take me for a fool, Jonathan." There's amusement to his tone, moving to look behind him as much as humanly can. "It's not a problem, it would be better to have company than having to do it on my own, anyway. Admittedly, I've come to not really enjoy that solitude anymore."

Well, there isn't much to do other than laugh with that! He'd hardly consider Speedwagon a fool, but he can't help but at least apologize for that sort of imposing matter.

"A great many things are made better by company," he instead replies, smiling. "Well then, Speedwagon- shall we make to prepare ourselves for this unexpected camping trip then?"

Perhaps if he teaches him all of this, then maybe, just maybe he won't make a fool of himself or die out here. That's really the goal for all of it. Just in case something happens and they get separated or, heaven forbid, he dies out here somehow.

"I think so. Perhaps the most important thing to find in this place would be a study knife, you can do many a thing with just that one tool alone." Making a fire, gutting a fish, hunting a bit, all sorts of nonsense with really just a knife.

TESTRUNNING POST

That's the only way

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