2. If today was your last day

[motherofthesun]

 (TRIGGER WARNING. This meme deals heavy with death and also possibly with strong violence or with suicide/depression. If you are not comfortable reading about that, please PLEASE do not proceed further.)

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Bruno Buccellati | JoJo's Bizarre Adventure | 5 + 3

[y_k_k]

[This wasn't exactly what he thought it would feel like. His lips are dry and his tongue is fat in his mouth; he feels like a hole has been bored through his abdomen.

There's a strange numbness radiating from his shoulders, from his hips, as his extremities give out on him. On the outside, he appears to be just fine, but he can tell that it's only a matter of time.

Why can't he just eat? His body... has given up completely.

It's not how he wanted to die.]

so pretty~

[y_k_k]

[He wholly ignores the hand on his shoulder. It's meaningful and important to him, but it's not the time to let anything compromise what little use he has left.]

That's a luxury we don't have. You know that. Besides, if you could've done something, I would have already asked.

[He looks him over.]

You want to try, don't you?

[gangster_star]

If you're suggesting that I give up, I'm afraid that I'll have to decline.

[The words are polite enough, but Giorno's posture and expression reveal his concern, ice-blue eyes rippling beneath the surface. And why wouldn't he be concerned? Buccellati is his mentor, the second one he's had in his life-- maybe the first, if he excludes the man who pulled him back up all those years ago, the man whose name he doesn't even know. But Buccellati has a name and a face and all the things that come with it: there's no way Giorno doesn't want to do something.]

[y_k_k]

[Almost defiant, Buccellati looks Giorno over.]

Try, then. If you think Gold Experience can fix this, do it.

BACKTAGGIN' INTO ETERNITY

[gangster_star]

With your permission.

[And with that concession, with that challenge that Giorno also takes as permission, the younger gangster nods and brings his hand close to his superior's heart, another phantom hand appearing to join it. Giorno closes his own eyes, letting Gold Experience utilize its mind's eye to feel for the life within Bruno, to draw it out, to restore it.

...But there's something wrong, like a desert draining the water from an oasis, sifting water through sand without absorbing. There's something wrong.]

HAY BB

[y_k_k]

[And Bruno waits, impassive, staring off over Giorno's shoulder. He gives him several long, agonizing seconds to examine the issue, feeling the strange cold-hot touch of the Stand on his body.] So?

[gangster_star]

[And Giorno hesitates, his expression set in something between confusion and frustration, ice-blue irises wavering in barely suppressed contemplation.

His answer is honest.]

I don't understand.

[y_k_k]

If the body has given up, but the spirit hasn't, this kind of thing is bound to happen. Irritatingly poetic, but at least I can function.

[gangster_star]

Your body... I don't understand how it could have given way. [It's a stunned sort of disbelief, though Giorno's seen he evidence for himself.] Isn't there anything to be done about it?

[y_k_k]

Not as far as I can tell. I was shocked when I figured it out, but I won't just stop because of it.

[He's quiet for a moment, just breathing.]

I'm sorry.

[gangster_star]

[Breathing, but dying-- the thought is almost incomprehensible to Giorno, though his expression remains steady, or as steady as it can be under the circumstances.

He can't be the one to show weakness, if Bruno isn't even letting himself do so. Like his mentor, Giorno is determined to hold it together.]

There's no reason for you to apologize, Buccellati.

[y_k_k]

There is.

I don't think I can get back up. I hadn't intended to stop this soon, but it looks like I was a little off on my estimation. It's getting to where I'm holding you all back.

[He looks his own hands over, his legs, his torso, all of which are fighting to shut down. It's pathetic... He's actually a bit angry about it, now.]

[gangster_star]

[What.

Giorno looks shocked for a moment (if I hadn't asked him to sit down--?), and he consciously tries to bring that shock down to something less... obvious. But it's a lesson in failure, since he really can't bring himself to accept this, not like this, not so soon.]

No, Buccellati. The team needs you.

[y_k_k]

Does a car need an anchor, Giorno?

[gangster_star]

No train can operate without breaks.

[y_k_k]

It can, recklessly, and with an impossibly steady hand.