Hospital Rooftop, 1988
The dusk lit rooftops of Karachi's cityscape stretch out before Joseph's eyes. He looks over to his grandson, the both of them leaning on the railing of the hospital rooftop. A cigarette dangles loosely from Jotaro's lips, the wisps of smoke fluttering in the sunset's orange light.
"Y'know, smoking hurts your lungs. Could mess up your Hamon."
"I'll be fine." Despite the curtness of his reply, Jotaro tosses the cigarette to his feet and smothers it with the toe of his shoe. Joseph sighs with a tinge of boredom and relief.
God, this is grinding me to the bone…just…STANDING around…
"Oi, Jojo." Jotaro's eyes laser focus on Joseph. "Stop sighing like that. It won't make time pass faster."
"But I'm bored…how long are those phone calls going to take?" Joseph flips around and faces the sunset, extending his Stand in front of him. He curls the vine to take the shape of letters, trying his best to amuse himself.
"He has to get the contact information for each of the missing researchers and connect to them via satellite phone, then follow up with communications with-"
"Ugh. Hold on…I'll just check. If he's nowhere close to being done, we're grabbing food." As he finishes, he takes out his Walkman and hooks a headphone onto his ear. With a smirk, he offers the other to Jotaro, who casts a hard glare back.
"…Yare yare daze…" Snatching the headphone, Jotaro gets closer and hooks the earpiece on.
"You ever going to tell me what that means?"
"Just use your damn Stand."
"Fine. Trickster Purple!" The vine curls and wraps itself around the Walkman, sparking with Hamon as it tightens. Static crackles into the headphones as Joseph closes his eyes to focus.
"…You know you don't always have to say its name." Jotaro sighs as he tries to pick out something from the fuzz.
"Yeah, but I'm catching up on these past weeks…" Waggling his finger as if he was angling a radio antenna, Joseph restlessly bobs side to side. Suddenly, some distorted sound plays through the Walkman.
"Hello, is this the Andersson household?"
"Yes?"
"My name is Joseph Joestar, I'm with Speedwagon Foundation. I'm calling about your husband, has he said much about his trip to Tibet?"
"Well, no, not really. He said he was there for a bit, then a snow storm came, so he got sent back."
"I see, thank you. That will be all…"
Wow, riveting. There WAS a lot of snow up there…
Joseph's eyebrows raise a bit with disinterest, yet Jotaro grabs his earpiece and clutches it.
"What, Jotaro? Sounds like we're wasting our time."
"No, Jojo…"
"You have any idea what happened?"
"A few. I'll need to ask Jiji when he gets here." He returns the headphone, then gets out another cigarette.
"…Is that Japanese or a fun take on 'Jojo'?"
"It means 'Gramps'." Jotaro takes out his lighter and flicks it to life, his eyes staring into the flame in deep thought. In front of them, a whine of metal tore its way across the quiet rooftop as someone stepped through the door from the hospital.
"Ya mind passin' that lighter, Jotaro?" Hol Horse grins as he holds a cheap cigarette between his teeth. "The girl confiscated my matches and threatened to stab me if I lit somethin' on fire."
"Sounds like her!" Joseph cheerfully smiles at Hol Horse, whose own grin faded into a strained grimace. Nevertheless, Jotaro tosses the lighter at Hol Horse, then turns around to lean over the railing again.
"Thank ya kindly." Hol Horse fumbles the grab a bit, bandages still covering his palms, but manages to light his cigarette as he walks over to join the other two. He rubs his hands a bit, wincing slightly as he leans on the railing as well.
"Well then, nothing to do but wait…" Joseph sighs again, loudly and dramatically.
"Not quite." Jotaro fixes his gaze at Hol Horse from the corner of his eye, not turning his head at all. "What do you know about the rest of the assassins headed our way?"
"Uh…" Hol Horse holds his cigarette between his fingers, lingering as if his brain was stalled out mid thought. "To be frank, I ain't worked with but a few of 'em. But the ones I've worked with have been dealt with already. If I had to wager though…" Again, Hol Horse lingers, but this time with much more trepidation than lack of thought.
A few seconds pass by before Joseph fills the gap.
"Yes, continue…"
"I…uh. Well, all I know about 'em are that their Stands are named after Egyptian gods or somethin'. DIO's inner circle. If you work with them, you're either very trusted, or cannon fodder."
"How's that?" Joseph restlessly stretches his calves and thighs, dipping into a lunge while listening.
"So, I've heard they're all extremely…devoted. Is the nice way of puttin' it. They'll follow DIO to the death, not just some paid mercenary or brainwashed killer. So either you're just as crazy as they are, or he's sendin' ya out ta die… Ouch!" He shakes his hand in pain from the burnt out cigarette between his fingers, flinging the smoldering remains off the rooftop in a panic. With a fluid motion, Star Platinum snatches it from mid air and tosses it beside Jotaro's foot, where he stamps it out.
"Smooth, Jotaro."
"We don't need an absent-minded cowboy burning down Karachi."
"Hey now, I was just, well. Thinkin'." Propping his arm on the railing, Hol Horse rests his head in his palm as a troubled look clouds his face. "We might be properly fucked, pardon my French."
"Well, we don't have any way to go but forward. We might as well move while we can!" Joseph finishes his stretches and sits down on the concrete rooftop, stretching his arms wide as goes to lay down.
Silence overtakes the rooftop, no one responding to Joseph's relentless positivity. The orange light of dusk fades into the blue of night, city lights gleaming below them as starlight twinkles above them. Before long, the door swings open, the older Joseph stepping through with a puzzled and thoughtful look on his face.
"Figure out anything, Jiji?" Joseph almost sounds like he's butchering the Japanese word as he says it with the biggest smirk on his face.
"Not quite. And you're using that phrase wrong. It's for grandfathers, not yourself but older and more style." The older Joseph scoffs at the man laying down on the concrete in front of him, before addressing Jotaro. "From what I can piece together, all of the researchers remember being told to go home, taking a helicopter back to civilization, then flying home from there."
"Which conflicts with the video I saw in Tibet." Jotaro turns and leans back, looking at the stars above them as he speaks.
"Not only that, but no one from Speedwagon has records of them leaving, nor do any of their flights match up with their stories. It's as if they suddenly appeared at home, with no memory of an incident at the temple." The older Joestar scratches his chin, getting deeper and deeper into thought.
"Jiji. I know we went over it quickly, but…" Jotaro pauses to look directly at his grandfather, "…do you remember how he got here?"
"…Vaguely. Frankly I was distracted by having the spitting image of my younger self in a Hawaiian shirt in front of me."
"Oh, and I believe you were trying to piledrive me into the tarmac, too!" The younger Joseph helpfully exclaims, but is not responded to.
"He got hit with that Stand, then reappeared a few weeks after you got Hermit Purple."
"Yes? But I'm here…so if that's the case…"
"Jiji." Jotaro stands up straight and tightens his focus on his grandfather's pondering face. "Do you remember being asked to guard a facility in Singapore?"
"Hm? Not that I recall…it was almost fifty years ago…but wait. I remember being asked to help out with something for Speedwagon, then blowing it off because I wanted to spend more time with your grandmother. He kept asking me how it went, and I had to tell him I didn't go-" A blue shock of revelation seems to jolt through the older Joestar's mind as he speaks. "-But I did go. And I just don't remember it?"
"I think it's worse than that."
"Worse how, Jotaro?" The Joseph on the concrete inquisitively asks, sitting up with crossed legs.
"If that were the case, there would still be just one of you." Jotaro's voice radiates with stoic confidence. "When I was hit with that man's 'Time Slip', it took a certain time for Star Platinum to pull me out of wherever I was. What would happen if I didn't have a Stand?"
"Well, I'd say you'd be like me." The younger Joseph folds his arms behind his head as he talks himself through his thoughts. "I was floating in that weird space for gods knows how long."
"But then, how does that explain the researchers? They're back home, safe and sound." The older Joseph responds, sounding a bit confused.
"What you said about Singapore confirms what I was afraid of." Jotaro again pauses, deliberating for a moment before continuing. "If you get stuck in that Stand, a version of you gets created where you never met Miller. That version loses all memories of the events leading up to the Time Slip. I believe it's how he's gotten around undetected in these last 49 years, maybe longer."
"Then, how does that explain there being two of us?" Again, the older Joseph asks with confusion rising in his tone.
"It's simple. The original 'you' developed a Stand from DIO's curse. Star Platinum appeared in the same general time frame as Hermit Purple and the Stand killing my mother. The first 'you' got his a little late, and reappeared in the same general vicinity of where he got hit by that Stand. My actual grandfather, who you are, is the alternate self generated by that Stand. A situation I doubt has come up before for this Miller."
A palpable tension hung in the air as the implications of this sunk into each of the Joestar's minds. The brief silence is broken temporarily by a blond cowboy.
"Welp! That all went over my head, I better go down and, uh, take a piss or somethin'! Have fun, now!" And with a hurried walk, Hol Horse heads back into the hospital.
"…So, I'm the real Joseph Joestar." The younger Joseph sits, arms folded in front of him. His brow furrows as he's still processing Jotaro's claim.
"…It seems that way." The older Joseph replies, equally consternated at the thought.
"…So…" Rising from his sitting position, the younger Joseph turns his gaze to stare at his older self. "…Jotaro is your grandson. And not MY grandson."
"…The timing would indicate that." The older Joseph matches his younger self's gaze, trying to figure out the thought process.
You bastard.
"So…"
"…Yes?"
"YOU STOLE MY WIFE!" The younger Joseph grabs his older self's collar and shakes him violently.
"That's what you're concerned about? Not the whole, 'this isn't time travel, you can't magically go back' deal?" Suddenly, as his older self finishes, the younger Joseph stops shaking the old man and his eyes drop.
"I…I hadn't gotten there yet." A sullen tone takes over the younger self's voice. From behind them both, however, Jotaro speaks up.
"Regardless, that makes things a bit simpler. We can just pulverize that Miller guy and be done with it. No need being gentle, if I'm correct in my assumption about his Stand. If it can't send you back, then there's no need to pull punches next time we run into him."
Yeah…we can just kick his ass…
"…Hey on the bright side, old man. I know I'm not destined to get into real estate like you!" The bright smile of the younger Joseph is met with the stony glare of the older Joseph.
An uncomfortable silence starts up but is quickly broken by the older Joseph.
"Oi." With a sudden lunge, the older Joseph hugs the younger Joseph. "I'm sorry. I know I took your life from you…" The younger Joseph is still frozen as his older self speaks, shocked by the abrupt hug. "…But this is still your family. I know you probably will hold it against me, but…will you still help us save my daughter?"
Dammit, eyes, stop doing that.
Melting into the embrace, the younger Joseph grips his older self. His voice comes through a stifled sniffle:
"She's my daughter, too. I would have to be an absolute idiot not to." The hug seems to get tighter, though through the corner of his blurry vision Joseph can see Jotaro walking towards the door, a slight smile on his face as he enters the hospital.
Now alone on the rooftop, the near silent hug remains as the two stoic Joseph Joestars stay resolute amidst the torrent of their emotions.
For approximately two seconds before they begin bawling onto each other's shoulders, lamenting the fate of the young Joseph's past and future through tears. Very little of what is said is intelligible.
END of CONVERGENCE 10