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#vera would win any fight lol
jjba-hell · 3 years
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Fate and Fortune
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I don’t know if this can be classified as Part 2.5 or Part 3... y’know let’s go with Part 3
Content warnings: pretty mild if not for the ominous feel, abandonment themes and some possible PTSD, nightmares and sleep paralysis (implied but not mentioned) and maybe some blood but not gore or violence.
So the big explanation I’m putting down for this one is that Vera holds the Wheel of Fortune as her stand- as I’ve said, my canon now, the one in canon do not exist ƪ(˘⌣˘)ʃ. I’ll probably elaborate on how it works later, for now- you’re getting breadcrumbs -w-
For the lovely @risottoneroo (please lemme know if I should cool it with the tagging lol (*´ω`*)
Part 1
Part 2
1.4 K words
It had been a few months since the incident in the place Vera once called home. Sitting at a café, overlooking the river Nile, Avdol and Vera had just polished off a pot of tea together. It was somewhat a celebratory brunch, Muhammed Avdol had won custody over Vera Astbury- the big benefactor that was sponsoring her schooling abroad being what won the courts over in his favor.
“So, who is this oh so generous benefactor?” She asked as she brought the cup to her lips once more- hoping she was veiling her distaste at being shipped to a boarding school in the following months well enough behind polite banter. If this idea was Avdol’s or the benefactor’s idea, she was still unsure- but her reluctance remained.
“You’ll meet Mr Joestar as soon as he returns for business in England. You really don’t have to break your head about who he is until then. I’ll keep you updated.”
Avdol had a tendency to avoid speaking on the court processions for her custody. She’d been upset by both her families’ reluctance to take her in at her time of need, the bags she’d packed to be shipped to one them, standing in Avdol’s living room for one too many weeks. Until he cleared a room for her and asked her to unpack.
The smile tugged at the corner of her lips without her knowing. Avdol caught the gesture and calmly placed his cup of tea back in its saucer. “And now I wonder- what could have made my answer so amusing?”
Vera shrugged as she swirled the stray tea leaves around the bottom of her cup. “For a moment you sounded like my dad-“ her smile slid off her face as the tea leaves settled.
Divination by tea leaves was something she’d laughed at when Avdol first taught her about it but now- with all her readings, even the ones she did unintentionally as practice to get a feel for how much tea she needed to move the tea leaves around- all ended in the same black dog figure stalking the bottom edges of her cup.
To her, it felt as though she was plunged ankle deep into the tea in the bottom of the cup, as though the image mirroring her own grief and fear in the tea leaves would consume her as well.
A graceful brown hand stretched over the mouth of the cup, obstructing her view of the leaves.
“You know better than to read into your predictions now. You need to grieve first.”
Vera’s gaze met Avdol’s across the table, the concerned frown on his face enough to remind her that she wasn’t completely alone.
“Would you have me organise a psychologist at the boarding school for you?” He sighed as he withdrew his hand from her cup.
She chuckled and cringed at the same time. “I appreciate you looking out for me but I am not looking forward to leaving.”
“I know, Vera. But whatever or whoever was after you hopefully won’t leave Egypt for you. And… now don’t look at me like that. No matter how desperately you want revenge, you’re much too young to go out and look for that kind of trouble.”
Vera reverted her scowl to a smirk, she wasn’t going to fight him, the last thing she wanted was to seem ungrateful for what he was doing for her. “Watch out Avdol- if you let me get too far under your skin, I’ll give you grey hairs.”
His eyebrow shot up as he folded his hands into his robe sleeves- “You underestimate my tolerance, Vera. I know you jest most of the time, even if its just a way for you to cope.”
Vera’s words caught in her throat- the clever retort gone before she could give it some voice. With a clear of her throat she folded her hands on the table. “Perceptive. I’ll keep quite then, I know when I’m outwitted.”
“I thought so.” Avdol chuckled, signalling the waiter for the bill.
Living with Avdol had turned into an agreeable co-habitation, a bit of an adjustment for both of them but she felt safe under Avdol’s protection.
In terms of basic necessity she was well taken care of- physchologically she was still struggling.
To Vera, the development of her stand did the exact opposite to what she felt like it was supposed to do- or at least what Avdol had told her it would do. Instead of manifesting her own strength, she felt more vulnerable.
Avdol had shown his own stand to her once he realized she had some control over her own. Magician’s Red radiated an intense heat that felt like it would suffocate her if he left them out in the room too long. They were considerably larger and more opaque than her stand- intense glare matching their user’s.
“I call them Magician’s Red,” Avdol had explained. “You will find the name for your stand soon, I’m sure.” At the time she shrugged off her own ability as useless. She was just a bit more lucky whenever she hovered her stand’s extended hand over a dice. She couldn’t image her stand setting having any more power than that- the envy of seeing Magician’s Red starting the bonfire outside one evening making itself evident.
To Vera, her stand only hovered a few inches above the her bed’s edge, cross-legged like a cat watching her struggle to make her limbs move or violently jerk herself out of a nightmare. It only let her feel guilty as she playfully stole a win from Avdol in a game of cards. Only a few weeks later she realized her stand could do more than steal luck.
“Ahhh shit.”
Avdol’s head popped in around the corner at her cradling her bleeding palm over the kitchen sink.
“What happened.”
“I dropped the knife and caught it at the blade.”
Avdol cringed as he ducked back into the hallway. “I’m getting the first aid kit.”
She pulled the unplugged the water in the other sink and turned the water on to run over her wound.
Without warning her stand emerged and took hold of her hand out of the water.
The dial that replaced their wrists twisted as they hovered their palm over hers.
Obstructed for a moment, Vera couldn’t figure out what was going on until the blood drops in the sink disappeared. For a moment she thought the water had rinsed it away but as her stand’s hand moved away from hers the wound in her hand was gone. Not even a scab left in its place.
“Now THAT is a useful trick.” Avdol laughed as her stand de-materialized, Vera turning her hand in front of her in disbelief.
Time and Fortune moved in tandem to one another- at least that was what her stand had her believe. Like time marched beside the changing seasons of the world, time was tied to the Wheel of Fortune.
On her last day in Egypt, Vera sat across Muhammed on the rooftop of his home.
“I see you’ve gotten a good grip on summoning your stand.” He hummed at her stand hovering just over her right shoulder. “Their presence is strong, much less translucent than it used to be.”
Between them sat a tarot deck she had bought on a whim- it’s maker had gingerly opened the box and let her run her hands through the cards, it’s irredescent gold beauty captivating her.
“How much?” She said as she pulled her wallet from her bag.
It was her very own deck and now- with the cards already shuffled and placed face down between them for a reading, she was ready to start her first reading with them.
“Let’s hope there’s not a Death Card for this reading.” Avdol sighed.
She smiled, spreading the cards out onto the dealing mat. With her intent set, she picked two cards- a card that would represent what she had to leave behind and a card that would name her stand.
The first card was flipped and the smug smile on Avdol’s face was all she needed to see.
Six of Swords reversed- “the Resistence to transition.”
Her gaze shot up at the cocky bastard, Vera groaning in frustration. “Yeah yeah yeah, I need to stop fighting my relocation.”
In defiance she flipped the second card and to no surprise the Wheel of Fortune card looked back at her.
“I wish I could say I was surprised.” She sighed.
Avdol chuckler quietly, “So how do you refer to them in your mind?”
Vera shrugged as she put her cards back together. “I just keep calling them Fortune in my head.” Her gaze looked her own stand over- it wasn’t particularly impressive, looking like painted terracotta stacked in disks to make up a body not too different in shape from her own.
“Suits them.”
With a heavy sigh Avdol rose up and guided her down the stairs where her bags and the Speedwagon foundation security stood waiting for her.
She assumed her benefactor must have been a higher up within said foundation if he was going this far to make sure she got the boarding school safely.
Vera rolled her window down and peered up at Avdol, a bitter smile on her face as she sat in the car and he remained standing outside.
“Don’t call me and tell me you’re lonely, this was your idea.” She taunted.
He rolled his eyes and then folded his hands over his forearms.
“I was hesitant to tell you this before but I think its fair you know.” He started and the words that followed had Vera floored.
“You’re the first person I’ve ever met to survive a stand fever. Keep that in mind before you think you’re too weak to go on your own.”
Vera’s widened gaze couldn’t look away from his face, as if her next blink was going to make him disappear before her very eyes.
“You’re serious? The first?”
That same sadness returned to Avdol’s eyes, but a mismatched smile returned briefly as he straightened up once again and with a fold of his hands into his sleeves said: “Don’t let that information go to your head.”
Vera smiled back, watching the window roll up between them and Avdol become smaller in the rear windscreen.
“Oh, this talk is far from over Muhammed Avdol.”
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