5353/The Land of 77 Rings

The Land of 77 Rings
Date of Scene:	04 July 2017
Location:	Windknight's Lot <WKL>
Synopsis:	A small group descends upon the isolated town of Windknight's Lot in search of the missing Jonathan Joestar.
Cast of Characters:	Jonathan Joestar, 571, 1119, Haguro, Count Kord, Priscilla, 707, Sir Gawain

---

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
The sun hangs half-way into its descent, indicating that it was most likely just coming out of its mid-day rise. Located in one of the unrulier parts of the multiverse, this particular part of Jonathan's world had been more or less seperated from all the chaos and attempts of intergration many others had been going through, in part due to its geography. With the only real way in being the tunnel that connected it to London through the gorge and many mountains and cliffs in-between, a tunnel which had been collapsed by Jack the Ripper, Windknight's Lot hadn't received visitors in a very long time.

        At least, until now.

To arrive required either hiking it through gorges and steep mountain passes that seemed to have been intended as a kind of rigorous test of fortitude for ancient Knights, the means of flight, or perhaps some form of teleportation. Ultimately, it mattered little how you've arrived, but you're here. Rolling hills and lush farmland are your initial greetings, with a misty Castle overlooking the humble township in the distance. A river traveled from the gorge and looped around to some part of the Lot, supposedly providing their source of water. However, after approaching, the town seems to be in a state of disarray.

Many of the houses are desolate, seemingly unkempt for some time. Those that are presentable are barely so, with only a small dozen or two people seen around a village that should have had somewhere in the realm of a hundred or more residents. Furthermore, despite an apparent effort at tidying up, no one is very keen on even approaching the area that housed the entryway to what was surely their graveyard, visibly desecrated in its entirety, even from this far away.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    A six foot woman with bloody red hair and a trench coat tends to draw a lot of attention, which is why Maaka at least masks herself with a hat and some fake stubble. That, and a seriously good sports bra beneath her plate carrier.

    Of course, disguise or no, she still draws plenty of it anyways with her motorcycle. The Knight roars across the roads, making her way toward the gorge and along the riverbed as she passes through the village. "Weird," she muses to herself. "Nobody's home."

    She'll keep going, heading towards the graveyard before she stops at the entrance.

    It could not be this easy to walk through, could it?

Josuke Higashikata (1119) has posed:
    It's always easier to travel established routes. So Josuke would have likely ended up in London first, because even in this apparent era, it's a major travel hub. Getting out of the city is a simple matter of renting a carriage. Doubtless the driver would have warned him about the collapsed tunnel. Which Josuke would have assured him was no problem.

    The reason why would become clear when dropped off at the tunnel. Because, after waiting for the driver to head out of sight, Josuke summons Crazy Diamond. He fixes the entrance to the tunnel, and then as he walks the rest of the way through, fixes the collapsed tunnel. Still, though, even as he comes out the other side the now-fixed tunnel, that's a long way. It's OK though. This is what Stands are for. Crazy Diamond can run pretty fast!

    So Josuke will cut the time down by having his Stand pick him up around the waist and then run really fast. Which is... well, really fast! So hopefully that'll cut the time down. Side effect? Kid probably looks like he's flying.

Haguro has posed:
If anyone's going to be blending in today and bucking the trend of people showing up in wildly period-inaccurate clothes...

     Haguro's not going to be that person. She's in unfamiliar territory, after all, and although she has enough sense to have a cheap-looking cloak and hood wrapped around herself, it doesn't do much when she's skating along the river to get to the village. The tunnel was blocked when she got there, after all, and she hadn't stuck around long enough to see Josuke clearing it out!

     Plus, she just wanted an excuse to do some recon around Windknight's Lot before meeting up with her new-ish co-workers.

Count Kord has posed:
    Kord discovered that Jonathan Joestar has been out of touch for a hot minute when he was checking on the roster for the Concord, since he felt obligated to do so now that he had some level of rank just above 'a member of the faction.' That is why an intimidating six-foot stranger with wild red hair just kinda lands from the sky, aloft on unusual wings, at the edge of town on a rocky outcropping, atop a scraggly tree. He perches there with such a silence and grace that it might be easy to miss him. It's a good thing it's daylight because the way he moved might've given the locals a collective heart attack.

    He scans the area from his vantage with a silent indifference. He recalls only a little of what he read of Jonathan, but what he knows made him understand that perhaps he should avoid approaching the village too closely.

    "... asking these people where he is will be a painful experience..." he muses aloud as he considers the state of the town itself. His head turns to acknowledge the presence of other visitors approaching the area. He calmly adjusts his gauntlets up there, his head dipping in thought, because more people means more potential chaos.

Priscilla has posed:
    Isolated townships with spooky castles and unnervingly empty graveyards, populated by a fraction of its former population, possibly most of them traumatized, and severely degraded by age and recent hardship. Priscilla would question her life choices, as to why this feels like a relatively comfortable arrangement, if it weren't for the fact that she knows perfectly well already. It could even start to feel homey if the sky was an eerie green.

    Really, there was no way she wasn't going to stand out in the first place --being six and a half feet tall even when she mortal-s it up as hard as she can, and having ivory horns, gold slitted eyes and a fluffy tail-- so she doesn't even bother. She's dressed as First of the Concord (technically really just Anor Londo high fashion), which means that white silk and gold embroidered number, pseudo-Norse/pseudo-Babylonian. Might as well have the blind to go with the authority. At least it communicates 'noble' more than just 'weird foreigner'.

    "And yet, I wonder precisely what it is that hast clearly so recently been theirs." she remarks offhand to Kord, kinda nebulously 'around'. There's no point in hovering outside of town, and so she descends the hills as a matter of course, aiming straight towards the castle, half-wondering if anyone will stop her.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
It's pretty atypical for Xiaomu to show up (without making an extra effort to disguise herself) and NOT be the one who draws the most attention; the blonde foxgirl is dressed much as she normally is, and yet the amount of attention she draws while following the tunnel and the canyon in her qipao and vest, Buddhist monk's staff in hand, vulpine ears and hairtails pretty much for all the world to see?

She could get used to it.

Granted, that's no more of a 'disguise' than she usually has when she's doing stuff in the field for Shinra back home, and 'fox ears' or 'hair looks like a bunch of tails' doesn't draw that much attention *there* either. Still, the rumors she heard were interesting enough to draw her out to investigate, and she didn't hear anything which sounded like 'nonhumans not welcome,' so she's taking her chances in following Josuke and the others. Quite a few interesting others, too - Priscilla herself, among others. Wasn't she in charge of something besides Anor Londo now ... ?

"Hey everyone," Xiaomu says sort-of-casually as she catches up with the group. Only 'sort of,' though, since she's catching her breath a bit. Only a bit.

Sir Gawain has posed:
A very strange duo had come in to approach the hills and start hiking towards the village. Specifically, a very large boar and a knight riding on top of it, with shining armor with a floral print. The boar barely has any riding equipment on it, yet is controlled perfectly by the knight. If anyone spots the duo, the knight simply smiles cheerfully and waves.

As they arrive at the village, though, Sir Gawain stops at the entrance, spotting people. He doesn't recognize Maaka, despite them ostensibly having met once. "Hello, there! Sir Gawain, Paladins Warden. There's quite a few people here. How many of you are villagers?" He recognizes Count Kord from a database of known Concord officials, and nods to him respectfully. The others might be residents, who knows?. Though, then Gawain spots Priscilla heading through the village, and the boar begins moving, up to walk alongside her. "Lady Priscilla, First of the Concord! I believe this is only the second time we've met. Sir Gawain, Paladin Warden. I'm on patrol, so if you've seen or heard of anything interesting, please inform me immediately!" He hasn't spotted the sea monster boat. Yet.

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Strangers. Tall strangers. Tall stranger with hoods, and cloaks, and some displaying strange powers -- those who were perceptive could see the immediate terror flooding into nearly all of the remaining village folk as they immediately tried to become out of sight, out of mind, holing up in their homes. The only ones otherwise appeared to be children; a young girl who couldn't be older than fifteen, and a little boy somewhere between five and seven years her younger. They had thick though relatively kempt black hair and plain clothing, yet striking blue eyes. Whoever they were, they didn't display quite the same fear in assumption that the others had but rather, had a fearless look of opposition.

Whatever they'd intended to do seems to have been stalled by Gawain's appearance. "Concord? Isn't that the place Mister Joestar said he'd been working with?" the youngest questioned. Yes, the floral-patterned knight was definitley someone they could see the giant of an Englishman. But the rest....

        They didn't look very wholesome.
    Especially not that fox lady, though, perhaps it was only the sister who thought so.

Ultimately, the path to the Castle is waylaid by these two plainly-dressed children. "W..what are you, a monster?!" was the youngest's attempt at bravery. His elder sister, comparatively, had the expression of a hard steel wall as she lightly tugged on her brother's collar to keep him behind her. "There's not much here any longer, can't you see that our people are burdened enough? Why are you here?"

Maaka, in the meantime, can enter the graveyard if she wishes. Nothing is stopping her, even from the entrance, it looked ravaged. Almost as if everything inside had been dug up, an unpleasant odor wafted from the ground. It even felt cursed.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Maaka glances at the giant boar with bafflement, before suddenly recognizing Gawain. "Do I look like I'm local?" She says flatly, Australian accent on full blast that DEFINITELY doesn't sound English. "You have a /weird/ patrol route, by the way." She adds, before continuing on, nodding to Kord and Priscilla along her way.

    She wipes her face clean of 'stubble' makeup, before she sees people approaching. "We're here to find Jonathan Joestar." She explains calmly, hopping off her bike. She'll let others handle the talking, before she goes for the graveyard.

    If shit hits the fan, she's definitely armed, and she enters without a hint of fear. She does however check her corners, as she braves the foggy environment.

    Does England usually have weather this shitty?

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
'Not getting the most attention' does not equate 'not spooking anybody,' and Xiaomu is unpleasantly reminded of that fact by the reception everyone's getting. Herself included.

"I'm not here to hurt anybody," Xiaomu says as gently as she can, inclining her head to the two children. "And I should hope that holds true for the rest of us. Not that I can speak for everybody," she admits, glancing around at the other Elites who've turned up here. She's pretty sure about Gawain, Haguro, Josuke, and Maaka, at any rate. Priscilla and Kord ... well, she's not sure either way.

"Have there been weird things going on around here lately," she asks the siblings, "or are your neighbors usually this skittish about strangers showing up out of nowhere? And what's with the graveyard, it smells worse than they normally do ..." She wrinkles her nose, turning away to either fan the smell away from her face, or maybe do a brief ritual of warding something away from her (and incidentally, away from the two kids, assuming this does *anything*).

(Actually, if she can sense anything unnatural from the graveyard, it's DEFINITELY the warding bit, complete with a murmured incantation and several hand-seals.)

Count Kord has posed:
    Kord is startled when Priscilla speaks to him. The way he flew in and landed was not too far from the road and he wasn't aware she was on her way too. His wings spread out and wiggle and visibly ruffle with black and red feathers as he tries not to fall off of his perch, because he is not a bird and does not have the same balance as one, and even birds have ungraceful moments.

    He doesn't fall down or anything, but he does hop off his perch and land to catch up with Priscilla and Gawain. The strange man gives Gawain a look of apparent confusion for only a few seconds, trying to recognize him. Gears metaphorically turn.

    "Ah."

    The response he gives is a pronounced bow. In fact, the amount of respect he shows Gawain is very exaggerated, and a rare sight from him. All he knows of Gawain is that he is a member of the Paladins - a group that Kord holds a surprising amount of positive feelings toward for a Concord member - and one of comparable rank, and even a stunning example of what a Knight should be.

    He halts when the group is stopped by a couple of children. He steps forward only close enough that he can be heard clearly and so that his confidence is clear.

    "... I am seeking Jonathan Joestar," he speaks in his deep faux-Romanian, "My only business with you or your village is information about where he could be." And he elaborates, "He went quiet not too long ago, and it is my duty as a superior to check on him. If he is in need of assistance..."

    He trails off, feeling suddenly really awkward because he isn't sure these children would even believe that coming from him.

    And this girl's face is making him uncomfortable. She has seen some stuff, and a mixture of compassion, impatience and uncertainty create this awkward silence where he has the hardest time elaborating.

Josuke Higashikata (1119) has posed:
    Josuke will eventually make it to this path, since he's trying to go the normal route. Oh, he's noticed the normal people running away. Maybe he should have gone and asked the Speedwagon Foundation about this place before coming here? But that might have meant having to deal with his dad, and... ugh. Way too much drama.

    If it's any help, Josuke is probably one of the more normal looking of the bunch. Just an admittedly well-built kid with an odd hairstyle. Does he bear enough of a resemblance to a Joestar to be noticed? Maybe not; he IS half Japanese. Either way he just keeps going.

    It's likely he'll eventually meet the rest of the group that has come here from the Multiverse. Now, Josuke more or less knows the look of Multiversal Elites when he sees them by now. Particularly the dude on the giant boar. Because uh. Yeah. Giant boar. "Hi!" he greets the group at large. He sounds a lot more upbeat than he really feels, though.

    Now, he IS going to go to the castle at some point. And he might just come across those kids too. He smiles though. "I'm not here to cause trouble," he assures them. "My name's Josuke. And, well..." He hesitates here, rubbing at the back of his neck sheepishly. "...You see... my father's last name is Joestar, too. So... I wanted to come and see what was going on here..."

Haguro has posed:
As Haguro regroups with the rest of the group headed towards the castle, she notices that the reception to her very presence is less than friendly. She had tried so hard to not look like a military person, too, but...!

     "We're not... I'm sorry!" She blurts out towards the children addressing them, sounding rather flustered about the whole situation and bowing rapidly to try and appease the children and the hiding villagers. It's rather embarassing to make such a blunder, especially in this... British place.

     That helps sober the Cruiser up considerably. She eventually clears her throat and straightens up enough to look more presentable with the hood off, even managing to speak more calmly afterwards. "We're here to look for a... Mister Joestar?" Haguro takes a deep breath, then gestures at herself, Kord, Alexis, and Priscilla. "We're coworkers of his. Um..."

     Her gaze soon turns to Xiaomu, Josuke, and Gawain. "And... I believe they're friends of his. Or patrolling the area. Or..." Josuke in particular gets a curious look, particularly when he mentions his name and his relation to a Joestar. "... Distant relatives?"

Priscilla has posed:
    Well, they're all running inside and hiding, instead of coming at her with rusted swords and savage eyes. That's new to Priscilla. Actually kind of /weird/. It feels awkward to be left essentially walking down an empty street, watching people scatter before her. It also makes the two children who stay outside all the more surprising. She stops to look at them (albeit way down), her tail twitching in what could be generously assumed to be curiosity.

    "That is correct" she begins, her naturally soft voice doing her a couple of favours, no doubt. She can only really sigh at the monster comment. "Sir Joestar is an associate of mine. What is it that thou knowest of him? Is it that he maketh residence here? I had meant to speak with him, however . . ." All she has to do is look around once. "I see very well there is something amiss here."

    Gawain trots by on a giant boar. Though she'd only met him in once in person, he had been pleasant enough, and clearly a man of chivalry, and so she greets him with no disrespect. "Little more than thou can see plainly at the moment, Sir Gawain. I knoweth not why thou chose this particular place to patrol, though it wouldst seemeth thine urge was well founded, unless it is simply thine good sense that eludes thee." The ghost of a wry smile goes with that.

    Josuke has something interesting to say. It's the first time she's ever met this one. "Ah, is it that thou art a relative of his? Or art thou simply intrigued by the peculiar choice of name? I admit, this wouldst be greatly eased by some relation between thee." Then a totally blank look at Xiaomu. "One wouldst first assumeth the corpses were exhumed. Second, that they rose of their own." Well duh.

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
The graveyard was completely silent. Empty. That descriptor is very accurate, in fact, because there was nothing there. No buried bodies, no belongings -- nothing. It's as if everything had risen up from the very ground it had been put to rest in from the most revered knight-saint to the lowliest peasant, the graves were utterly devoid. How...unsettling.

This holy ground had been soiled. The source of the cursed feeling was surely this, the sensation of a wrong having been done here. Something utterly opposed to the natural order. Life and death, were the undeniable facets of life. A duet, if you would. To sully this would be the source of the highest damnation of whatever upper echelon of existence one could point to. Yes, whatever happened in this graveyard was surely pure evil.

The boy, Poco, shrinks under the intimidating presence of beautiful women, a chivalrous man like the sun, and that tall hooded figure. Josuke, perhaps, was the most normal, but his haircut in and of itself was frightening. His sister's expression softens, but only somewhat. "Is that so? ...You're all suspicious. But, I suppose that man with the nested hair does bear a resemblance to Lord Joestar. To answer your most immediate concern, you won't find him here, he left for the Castle behind us some time ago to search its grounds. It's a very big estate, but even so, we've been a little worried for him.."

She pauses, a verbal tic of some sort to speak in an evenly paced manner. Poco, in that space of time, finally finds his tongue once again. Under his breath, he mutters as he stares at Josuke; though those with superior hearing or the ability to lipread would be able to tell what was said. "You know, didn't Mister Speedwagon say that Mister Joestar was the last of his line..?"

His siter continued, focusing her gaze away from Kord, who'd been subject to the brunt of her clear-eyed glare, and onto Priscilla. She seemed to have the air of the 'leader' of those present. "Six moons or so ago, a vampire took residence in that Castle. He arrived cloaked in the day, much like some of you did just now. And over the course of the intervening time, terrible things happened here, and we could do nothing. Then, Lord Joestar and his allies came. What you are seeing is recuperation of our tragedy, the numbed grief of what we lost. This Windknight's Lot, once renowned as the home of England's Queen many centuries ago, has always been soaked to the soil in spilled blood, but ...even so. If you are as you say, then perhaps you'll find Jojo beyond here, within the old Royal Abode."

        Poco is pulled out of the way as she steps to the side.

Sir Gawain has posed:
There's a glance at Maaka, a brief glance. And then, recognization! "Ah! I'm sorry, I didn't recognize you for a moment. Hmm? Is there something about you that would make you not look like a local?" Sir Gawain ponders to the bike-riding Australian, not being one to judge. He smiles when Kord greets him so vigorously, as he continues to walk alongside Priscilla. "Ah, I patrol everywhere! I look at a map, look at regions that don't get much Paladin patrol, and head there specifically." This is probably a breach of information in some way, but Gawain sees no harm in it. "I've met Mr. Joestar. Quite a gentleman. Is he missing? If so, I'd be happy to assist in finding him."

When the children appear, Gawain dismounts from the boar, petting it. It reacts happily, as he bows to greet the children. "Hello there! I'm Sir Gawain, I'm a knight. If your village is burdened, please allow us to know how we can assist." Yes, he's pulling the Concord into that, and as they explain what's happened, the knight stands up straight. "I see! I am very sorry that this happened to you. If your village needs assistance, please ask, and we can see about providing resources. For now, it seems we're all interested in talking to Mr. Joestar, yes?" Gawain begins to head forward, but continues pace alongside Priscilla (unless she doesn't proceed). While left behind, the boar isn't going to cause any problems if not disturbed. He's just gonna sit there and be a good boy.

Count Kord has posed:
    The girl's glare is met with /solid/ eye contact, with Kord looking at her and silently thanking his lucky stars that she can't see the uncomfortable frown that her glare causes in him. He lets out a sigh through his nose as she explains that he is adorned similarly to the cause of this catastrophe, and without even asking if they need him to, he reaches up to grasp his helmet by the eyeholes.

    He slides the helmet off and reveals his face. He props his helmet under his arm and he explains, "I look very strange," and it's here they might see his sharp teeth, "The helmet is to hide that, but I do not intend to harm anyone here." He looks around at the houses and his brow creases, because it reminds him of a city from his home that he is actually responsible for turning into a desolate place like this.

    With the children stepping aside, though, he reaffixes his helmet and steps forward while he adjusts it, heading up to find and speak to Jonathan like he intended to do when he left the fort today.

Haguro has posed:
"Is that why...? I-I had no idea. I'm sorry, miss." Haguro offers Poco's sister another light bow of her head, and she quickly removes the cloak to reveal he rusual purple vaguely nun-like outfit with all the armored bits and turrets attached. If nothing else, at least she won't look like the vampire that's been mentioned!

     "A vampire...? Then Mister Joestar must have defeated the vampire, right? Perhaps..." Haguro murmurs to herself, then glances over towards Josuke when he clarifies some details about his lineage. She lets out a quiet 'aah' noise, then steps towards Josuke without about as much subtlety as someone decked out in relatively-futuristic combat priest gear can to try and whisper to him.

     "... Mister Josuke? I don't know if these people here are aware about how time... Things work in relation to that." She whispers, the turns back to Poco and his sister with an awkward smile to try and not look so damn suspicious whispering liek that. "Ah, s-so don't worry! We'll find Mister Joestar and make sure he comes back safely, okay?"

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
So, nothing to smell from the graveyard except death and decay, at least as far as Xiaomu can tell. It says something about her regular line of work that this is *good* news.

"'Lord' Joestar, huh?" Xiaomu asks, turning her attetntion back to the two kids. There's quite a bit more to hear than just that, though ... like a vampire who can make it around in the daylight, albeit with the aid of what sounds like a heavy cloak. But if there was a vampire here and that has something to do with why the graveyard is all self-excavated ...

Shouldn't she be able to smell SOMEthing from that?

Weird.

"Just because 'Lord Joestar' is the end of his line as currently known doesn't mean he *stays* the end of it," Xiaomu comments, "but it sounds like the castle is our best place to look. In the meantime, if any undead show up, yell for help and we'll come running - and if you need us after we leave ..." She pauses, glancing around. "Anyone got a spare radio we can give them?"

Priscilla has posed:
    It seems that Priscilla's guess that the castle was the place to be was a well founded one. Just hearing the little girl speak of it, she can't help but look past her for a minute, examining the structure in detail, partly to take stock of entries and egresses, and something about its time period, but also partly just to get a feel of it.

    She hadn't known Jonathan that well yet, but she was already well aware of his confidence in walking into places like that. No doubt his odd sunlight powers were what called him to match up against a vampire. "I had feared it was something as such." she says --truthfully as well. A vampire is a kind of undead, after all. "Such news is concerning. How long is thou estimate Sir Joestar presented himself after the creature arrived?"

    And then in that backhanded way she just does: "If it is the vampire that is occupying his time, and distracting him from his duties, then I supposeth there is nothing for it than to deal with the thing. Perhaps it is best thou returneth inside."

    With that, she resumes her route, approaching straight through the main gates of the castle, unless something exceptional should persuade her to do otherwise. At the very least, she can scope some of the interior out. She doesn't try to discourage Gawain. The boar doesn't draw much notice from her aside from the fact it's not covered in armour. "I wouldst ask what compels thee, Sir Knight, but I believeth thee a straightforward sort. I imagine thine title as Knight of the Sun wouldst be well placed here, asides."

    She does stop, however, to turn to Josuke, and beckon him. "Come, then. Thou clearly knoweth something of this vampire, or at least this castle. I wouldst hear thine thoughts on the matter."

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    "Maybe the fact motorcycles weren't invented at this time." She shrugs a shoulder, before Maaka continues in the graveyard. She'll notice dug up graves, and a spooky aura. Looks like the zombies have already risen, and by the time she returns to the others, she decides maybe it's been taken care of. "That'd explain why the graves are all disturbed. It's like Thriller just happened in Victorian London."

    She listens to Poco and his sister explain what happened, and tilts her head. "So he came back to check this place. Could've given us a memo or something." She admits, frowning. "Where is he now?"

    She notices Xiaomu and Josuke, hard not to see a fox lady and a kid with Josuke's hair, and nods to them both.

    "Hey, Josuke right? Didn't expect you here." She greets the youth, clapping his arm with a firm impact. It may stumble him a bit, knowing Maaka's strength.

Josuke Higashikata (1119) has posed:
    Still looking massively sheepish, Josuke replies to Haguro's question, "Ehe...y-you could say that..." It's a delicate situation, and Josuke really isn't sure of anything except 'Joestar' is his father's last name and that his father is British by birth. Since, they're all in England currently, it's... probably not just a coincidence.

    Priscilla gets a look -- in fact she gets a double-take, because she's taller than even he is, and he's always been really tall for his age. Also for being Japanese. "I think we're related," he confirms. "It's... a long story." And not one he wants to tell in front of the kids, because infidelity is not something he wants connected to the Joestar of THIS world. He does explain a bit more fully, though he keeps his voice down quietly, "My father's British too, and it's exactly the same name; I don't think it's coincidental."

    He's also listening to other conversations and... the mention of corpses rising from the grave themselves? That gets a scowl. He knows a LITTLE about some of the things that happened in his family's past. He knows Dio was a vampire, and that he was old. But wait... could he have been THIS old? Could Dio be responsible for this too...?

    And then the girl is explaining what happened here and... yeah, pretty much confirming it. "...Dio." Yes, he says the name. He bloody well SAYS THE NAME. Though the dark scowl on his face... the way his hands clench into fists -- given all this, his visibly upset look, Josuke at least partially understands the gravity of the name he speaks. However, the next moment, he takes a breath. Calm it down, Josuke.

    Once he's taken a breath, he calms. "Thank you," he says, bowing politely. Also see? Just hair, nothing weird going on there! But yes. "I'm sure of it now... I AM related to Mister Joestar." He speaks with confidence, as if there's no doubt. The mention of a 'Speedwagon' confirms it -- it must be the founder of the Speedwagon Foundation. There's just too many similarities.

    Gawain's mention of Jonathan being a great gentleman actually gets a sigh of relief. A gentleman couldn't be a womanizer, right? So probably not like Josuke's dad at all. Massive relief. And then yes, he stumbles at the pat on his arm! Partly because of her great strength, and partly because he wasn't expecting it. Actually he winces a bit -- he's still bruised from that insane truck chase! Though he still offers her a smile. "Oh, hi there," he greets. As for not expecting him here? "Well... it looks like Jonathan Joestar is a relative of mine, so... I'm curious to know what happened..."

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
The stern young lady looks slightly guilty as Kord shows his face. It was understandable that he would want to hide his face, she supposed, and making him show himself out of her own suspicion felt rather cruel. Poco almost pokes Josuke's hair. "R-right..uhm..we're sorry for bein' uh..ac--acusory of you people." he said. His sister looked frustrated for a moment, perhaps at his vocabulary. "Yes. We'll explain everything to the others while you're all looking in the Castle grounds." It didn't need to be said, most likely, that their suspicion was well justified; but they apologized for their rudeness none the less. As they began to pass, she gave Xiaomu a small nod of confirmation, but was short in her reply so as to not hold her up, unless she decided to stay for more exposition. "The Joestar family were nobles from London, their repute and authority stretched even out here in the country side. Before the reform of parliment, Pa said that they ruled the greatest amount of land of all the ruling families in the country."

They both looked confused as to what a 'radio' was supposed to be.

Priscilla can tell that the Castle was easily several hundred years old, perhaps closer to a thousand. Built in the middle ages, its stone held up surprisingly well. The craftsmanship was superb. The Castle, even from the road approach up into the cliff it was built into, was massive. From where she was, she could see most notably, one of attached towers had a large hole in it, as if something gargantuan had crashed through the side. Below that, was a gorge and, across from that gorge, was a lake. What should have been a lake, rather, was almost dried out. And the land infront of it was blooming with greenery, a single, well-maintained breastplate was left there exuding warmth like rays of the sun. It was a sanctified grave. If Xiaomu had come along to sense it, she too could tell that it was a holied resting place, a grave for a saint, as the saying went.

Josuke Higashikata (1119) has posed:
    Haguro's words about the Multiversal shenanigans get a nod. Leaning over closer to her, he also whispers back, "That's why I'm keeping the details to a minimum." He offers a small, secret smile and a conspiratorial wink in her direction. Not to worry, he's not going to sequence break TOO much! Xiaomu gets a blink. Reflexively he pats a pocket, as if he's about to search for one. But then he realizes he doesn't have one on his person. "Uh... no, I'm afraid not," Josuke replies.

    Priscilla's look to him gets a blink, and he falls into step near her. "Well... I know a little about the vampire. But..." He pauses, not wanting to reveal too much until he's out of earshot of the girl and her brother. Speaking of the twin kids... it seems Josuke is learning a little more about his ancestors today! He doesn't seem bothered by the boy's tripping over the word, and doesn't mention it. Instead turns to the girl and her brother. "I'm sorry to upset you, and the others in the town, too," he offers, in as formal a tone of voice as he can manage. "I understand why you'd be so upset. Thank you for your help, both of you." Then he bows respectfully to the pair -- a British bow, mind, not a Japanese one -- and starts away.

    Only once they're out of earshot, does he offer a further explanation to Priscilla, "Well... the vampire they're talking about... I think it's Dio. I don't know a whole lot about him. Just that when I was four, he caused this really bad fever I had. I almost died." So, yeah. Understandably he's probably a little sore about that.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Maaka helps Josuke stand back up, muttering 'Sorry' quietly before she raises a brow. "Dio?" She says aloud. YEP, that won't help at all.

    She has no idea what Dio Brando did to this village, the atrocities he committed. If it's enough that these people are scared shitless of visitors, he was clearly no joke.

    "So what happened to the Joestars, then? WHy's Jonathan not mentioned his family before?"

Priscilla has posed:
    "At very least, this place was not the sad sight it is today, long ago." Priscilla remarks to herself, a little too softly to be conversational. She knows her way around old castles and various medieval architecture, after all. "I wonder if this place is something that once belonged to said Joestar Family --or if it still dost."

    Other than that, even if Priscilla isn't an exorcist, she can't possibly ignore such obvious sacred magic --or whatever passed for it here. Leaning over to examine the article, she can immediately place it as being much older than the people outside as well. Who wears a breastplate in this era? The fact that it's still here, though, is slightly concerning. Clearly, its blessing had prevented this one, specific corpse from being risen, but it hadn't deterred the vampire from making his residence here for months.

    She looks up to the hole. Too high for her unless she wants to engage in a long and aggravating climb. It's also very big. She'd imagine someone with sufficiently superhuman strength could perhaps break through these walls, but they're very well made, and as far as she knows, vampires aren't traditionally gigantic.

    "What is it that makest thou say that this vampire and thine Dio art one and the same?" she asks Josuke. "What connects this, which stands before us, with such a fever?" Her tone is a little intense, but not accusatory, clearly fixating on the closest thing to a lead anyone here actually has. She has no reason to suspect the lad, what with obviously not being part of the Paladins. While they talk, she checks out the main entrance, testing it for any signs of being locked, jammed, broken, or if she could just waltz in if she wanted.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Stay and listen, or go and look? It's a tough question, and Xiaomu's curiosity pulls her in both directions for a moment before she decides to stick around and listen in further. Besides, if Jonathan Joestar is with the Concord, then technically it's not really her job to look for him.

And what the kids - Poco's sister especially - has to say about Jonathan Joestar makes her glad she *did*. "So, a noble family," the sage fox muses. "Interesting." She gives Josuke a more considering look ...

Then a more curious one. "Wait a sec. If Dio died in *this* era and you're Jonathan's descendant by a couple of generations ... how did he cause a fever in a child he'd never actually seen while you were that young? Do the Joestars just have really short generations, or was it some kind of familial curse on the Joestar bloodline? Or something else?"

Haguro has posed:
With enough information gathered about Jonathan and his venture into the castle, Haguro's next target is the castle itself! She's still listening to the conversation following the Joestar bloodline, though, following the group heading for the castle. Haguro furrows her brow while trying to mentally process all of that lineage stuff, too, and it's not clear whether Xiaomu's questions mimicking her own concerns are making any more or less sense now. "Is that something vampires can even do...?"

Count Kord has posed:
    The apology was an odd one, but Kord didn't stick around long for it. He understood their trepidation quite well and he had little desire to linger there when he was, in fact, a monster by some people's standards. The way he acted back in his world had garnered a certain reputation among the fearful commonfolk and it was hard to escape how awful it felt to be reminded of that when faced with comparable devastation.

    "Nice castle," he comments to no one in particular as they approach. On the subject of Dio causing a fever, he has to look at those asking the question with a mild confusion, because he is a seasoned veteran of magical ailments and folk mythology and their inquiries strike him as odd until he realizes the logic behind their questions.

    Kord lifts his head to note the hole in the wall up there. "Let the boy explain," he remarks, since multiple people had made the same question to the currently present JoJo. He didn't even look more than a few years older than Josuke, so his tone might be a little off.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Maaka begins to head for the castle, when she notices Priscilla's already gone ahead. She'll carry on, wandering through the halls. "Find anything, boss?" She asks, as she inspects the hole. No way is she gonna make that jump without climbing gear.

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Poco scratches his cheek. "Well, we don't really know 'bout that...jus' the hearsay that passed through before, t..that."

Dio's name had an obvious unsettling effect. "And uhm, what Mister Speedwagon said." Poco finished, looking to his sister for clarification. She was better at reciting things than him. She looked rather uncomfortable gossiping about it, if Jonathan hadn't said anything, perhaps it'd been for good reason? Diplomatically, "...the Joestar estate burned down sometime before that monster got here. Speedwagon said ..he was behind it, and that a lot of people were killed by him that night." she provided. Spilling all of the beans hardly seemed appropriate, but she could tell them that much, she supposed. Obviously, the 'he' in question was Dio.

As for the others, Priscilla finds the entrance unlocked. It looked recently travelled through, relatively -- most likely, it had been Jonathan entering prior to them. The massive gate that typically would have covered the front doors was retracted, allowing entry into the un-lit main hall.

Sir Gawain has posed:
"I am compelled because Mr.- Lord Joestar is a person of good character from what I've seen of him, and it sounds as if he may need assistance in some way or another." Yep, Gawain is /entirely/ straightforward. As they travel forth, the Joestar family is explained. They certainly sound like alright people, though Gawain doesn't know anything about this Dio. A vampire who burned down Jonathan's estate? He sounds like a bad character. "What does this Dio look like?"

And then, once they're inside the main hall, Gawain steps forward a bit, into the sunlight. It glances off his armor as if it the armor was made to take in the sun. With a loud, cheery voice, he cries out. "Lord Joestar! Are you in here?!"

Josuke Higashikata (1119) has posed:
    "I'm... honestly not sure," Josuke replies as Maaka asks the question. "I'm... well..." Pause. How did he explain it? "My father was probably Jonathan Joestar's descendant, that much I can figure out myself. But... my mother isn't the woman he was married to..." Which might explain his trepidation about telling how he was related in front of the boy and the girl. "I haven't really gotten involved with my father's side of the family, because... well, don't want to cause any trouble in the family. My, uh... nephew, Jotaro, said that Mr. Joestar's wife was furious when she found out about me." Pause. "Er, not THIS Mr. Joestar, the one from where I'm from..." He trails off.

    Priscilla's question gets a sigh. "Jotaro said Dio was a vampire, a very old one. That when he... gained power, everyone related to my father got the same kind of power. So, if it's the same vampire... if he's THIS old..." He trails off, then sighs. "Everything lines up with what Jotaro told me. But with the Multiverse being what it is, this might not even be attached to my world. Alternate universe? Is that the term?"

    And then he remembers exactly what Jotaro said. WHY everyone of the Joestar line gained a Stand when Dio did. That he's just had a horrible epiphany is clear, with the way his eyes widen, and he looks almost frightened. But... exactly what did he just realize? Whatever it is... he doesn't say. He composes himself. No. He's not going to let that happen. Not if he can stop it.

    Xiaomu's question gets a pained look. "He... someone must have brought him back." He's choosing his words carefully. "Then he got a Stand, and it made all of us develop them. But I was four. I guess I was too young to control it. So I got sick." This is sounding more and more convoluted, isn't it? "...I know a way to tell for sure if it's the same Jonathan Joestar..." He rubs at the back of his neck briefly, though not with a sheepish look.

    He offers a grateful smile to Kord. "Thanks," he says quietly, though he's plainly still disturbed about something. "It's... kind of confusing to me too, I admit. I'll have to see if I can get some more information about it." He'll just have to pull up his big boy pants and deal with the notion that his existence is making someone upset. And he's still not pleased with his father for being unfaithful. "But... yeah. It's looking like Jonathan Joestar put Dio down, then he came back. That's what Jotaro said, too."

    Poco and his sister confirms that it was Dio, it seems... but Josuke has moved to enter the castle. He doesn't see much around inside. And what does he do? The wrong thing to do in the situation of 'empty creepy castle'.

    "...Hello?" he calls out, after Gawain calls out. As for what Dio looks like? "...I don't know. I've never seen him before..."

Haguro has posed:
Once inside the castle, Haguro starts to peer and poke about! She steps over when Gawain starts calling out for Jonathan, even giggling briefly before peering at the sunlight coming through. "He shouldn't be too far, right? If he's been here recently, then... He couldn't have gone too far without someone noticing. Especially if he was using technology beyond what would be normal for this time period."

     After a moment, Haguro starts heading forward, picking a random direction and just going for it! Stairs are prioritized, though, since going up means having a better vantage point! Maybe. "Is anyone in here? We're here to assist if you're in trouble!"

Count Kord has posed:
    "I fought a woman that had a Stand once, before the multiversal upheaval," Kord mentions aside to Josuke as they step on into the castle, his boots not making any noise as he walks. He seems pretty indifferent to most of this when he has his helmet on. He steps into the main hall and makes note of the lack of torches and lanterns to light the room, making it clear that if Jonathan were in here, he would be...

    "There must be a study further in. If he is anywhere in here, it would be the living quarters or wherever there would be desks and writing material," he notes, because he had read that Jonathan was one of those fellows that got folded into the Concord from the League and might have more of an interest in research than most because of it.

    "JONATHAN JOESTAR!!" he calls into the castle, his deep and Romanian-like voice probably not comforting but plenty loud, "ARE YOU IN HERE?!" And then he starts walking further in to search for the study like he said, following up on his own idea.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu nods to Josuke. "Fair enough. Sorry to make you delve into all that." It does seem like a less than pleasant subject.

For now, Xiaomu bows politely to the two kids. "I didn't catch your name," she says to the girl, "but I'm Xiaomu. May you, your family, and your neighbors be safe from all evils, natural and unnatural."

If the girl wants to introduce herself, Xiaomu lingers for that; if the chance to give her name is declined, Xiaomu just heads on to help search the castle - Kord's yell was REALLY audible, so finding him shouldn't be too much trouble. Depending on how echoes travel.

Priscilla has posed:
    A few time periods, a little more context, some names --all of it is helpful, if only in small measures. Priscilla may not look like she's eagerly absorbing the information (she rarely looks eager in most shades) but she has her ears and eyes out for every little detail she can pick up on.

    "Well then, young man, from what I knoweth of Sir Joestar, the idea that thou art related is quite plausible. Perhaps even likely. An 'alternate world' is not inaccurate, but it is also quite possible, and in fact, oft more common, for them to be similar in all respects but the period of time that is the present. What thou knowest couldst very well be accurate, so do not despair of its usefulness." Admittedly, she knows /very/ little about Stands, but that's not the term that sticks out at her. She'll have to ask Kord later.

    "If it is a matter of import to thee, I wouldst wish to hath thee on hand for whence we art able to track him down once again." Any matter of heavy gates with unoiled hinges is easily rendered a moot point by her, well-used to shouldering the things aside. She might get a little rough, if need be, seeing as apparently it's not really Joseph's estate. Whilst the others call out for him, Priscilla breathes deeply and attunes her senses to that commonality that all creatures of Lordran share in one way or another: that of one for souls. Hers isn't enormously powerful, and nor wide-ranging enough to cover the whole castle, but she should at least get a general idea of anyone in the rough vicinity, living or dead. She doubts there will be much of a trail by now, but it's worth trying.

    "If this vampire's resurrection is an onerous occurence to thine family, especially if it is also a common one, there art means of rectifying the problem in a permanent fashion." she assures him, very cryptically.

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Poco waves. Xiaomu is regarded with trepeidtious eyes for a moment, before finally, the girl nodded. "My name is Anca, this is Poco. Be safe, then..Sh...Jia...Xiaomu." she shows her literaly skills, quickly adapting to the foreign name. Poco looks like he wanted to say goodbye too, but, perhaps he didn't have faith in his ability to pronounce it and just waved instead.

In the Castle, the voices echo for what seems to be miles. But surely, this place wasn't quite that large, was it? ..There is no response. Either he wasn't here, or he was very deep inside. There were stairs leading up, as well as doors leading to different wings of the Castle, perhaps even to the tower shown before. Noticeably, the room was in severe disarray; there was dust...no, there was ash all over the floor with discarded, ancient and broken pieces of armor or weaponry strewn about. But whatever battle had occured could not have been recent.

Faded, a painting of a woman stretched across the front-center of the room. It was Queen Elizabeth the First, a ruthless tyrant.

Once Priscilla extends her senses, she can indeed sense the dead. A great number of them, extinguished lives -- the ash that unceremoniously graces this area. The occasional dry rotted corpse, with a gunshot in its head, or perhaps its cranium lopped off. More of that icky muck from the graveyard. It permated everywhere she could think to feel out, but there was something faint. Something living. Jonathan was not nearby, but perhaps teetering on the edges of what she could sense. It was hard to tell exactly where, though.

Josuke Higashikata (1119) has posed:
    Josuke looks at Kord in surprise when he mentions there was someone else with a Stand. "Really?!" He's not sure if he's glad to hear it or not. But he will leave any further inquiries to that for later. Because he's worried now. Maybe it's what he's realized, and the danger he knows his ancestor will eventually be in.

    ...He really hopes that... it's not happening now...

    Priscilla gets a nod. "There's... circumstances involved in it," Josuke replies. "Maybe... maybe it can be prevented here..." He hopes. Even if it would make him powerless. Would it work like that? Would he, from a different world, lose his Stand if Dio's resurrection did not come to pass in THIS world?

    ...Josuke finds that... he doesn't really care. He just wants to stop Dio from hurting more people...

Priscilla has posed:
    In truth, Priscilla had expected a more empty sort of reception, abandoned by old age and disused by the townsfolk outside. It looks like, perhaps not that long ago, this place had been well used, however, the the adjoining village largely a convenience and attached farmland. The number of dead vastly surpasses her expectations. Then again . . .

    "There art lingering traces of vast numbers of dead amongst these ashes, but thinketh not such ash to be something a vampire wouldst render unto a man. The stench is as pervasive as the graveyard. I am left to wonder if this is Sir Joestar's handiwork, upon corpses that were guided inside, and made to battle him." She crouches to check out a bullet hole, utterly unflinching in handling disgusting corpses, despite that elegant attire, to a degree that indicates she couldn't be trying even slightly hard to suppress a reaction.

    "I wouldst recognize the warmth of that spirit, as well. He hast most certainly passed through here, and very recently. Enough so that I believeth he shouldst still be here." Naturally, she looks up, straight past the stairs and towards the ceiling. "Sir Kord, wouldst thou mind making use of thine power of flight, and ingressing through that hole in the tower?" And then to Josuke. "Anything of use thou couldst provide, thou shalt be rewarded for."

Haguro has posed:
"No response... Hmm. That's... It's too early to say." Haguro frowns as she listens a little bit longer and gets a bunch of nothing except echoes, following the stairs and taking note of the massive amount of refuse everywhere. The painting gets a disapproving stare from the Cruiser, but she doesn't linger on it for very long.

     Instead, her attention is focused on the room itself. "He might not have even been in here. Although..." She furrows her brow, looking mildly uncomfortable about the presence of all the discarded weapons and ash. Priscilla confirms her suspicions, but the talk of 'warmth' and Jonathan's recent presence has her looking around a bit more closely to see if there's any physical clues lingering aroundi n that room.

Count Kord has posed:
    Kord looks aside at Josuke, and recalls the circumstances of the fight for a moment there. He looks at the boy with a beat or three of awkward silence, and just fails to confirm or elaborate. Without further questioning, he moves on to the matter at hand. Jonathan didn't respond when he called out. So the dark-attired fellow breathes another sigh.

    And receives a suggestion from Priscilla. He turns and does exactly that, his wings spreading out and beating a few times, needing no updraft or even much space to pick up speed, just immediately taking off through the door. He flits up to the hole in the tower to land at the edge where it looks the most sturdy and call inside.

    "Jonathan Joestar!" he calls into the tower, in the hopes the man would at least answer.

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Haguro finds misplaced dust and ash; possibly from someone having moved through the area previously, not excessively long ago. Perhaps a day or two. Prints of some kind of heavy, tread-less boot mar the thick layers of clutter on the cobbled floor.

While Count Kord does not receive a response beyond the bellow of his own voice, he too, finds signs of someone having been through the area. Far more recent, clearer footprints to follow. If he chose to observe the room closer, he'd see some awfully..disturbing things. Like the gigantic breastplate discarded on the ground, and the boulder sized broadsword to match impaled in the corner. The room itself, was a dungeon, with chains hanging from the ceiling, some attached to thick steel collars. This was The Room of Dragon Decapitation.

The footprints led both in and back out of a sturdy iron door on one end of the dungeon. At most, these were hours old. Considering the amount of space between the tower and the main hall, it was clear the man had covered large amounts of ground searching every nook and cranny of the Castle. Perhaps he could be found at its core.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Not much to find as far as Xiaomu's concerned. She doesn't really have any good idea of where to look that the others aren't already thinking of.

On the other hand, the fact that those footprints are so fresh is a pretty promising sign. "Mr. Joestar?" Xiaomu calls out, keeping her staff at the ready just in case those footprints belong to somebody less friendly.

Count Kord has posed:
    This room has a comforting smell.

    "Shut up."

    Kord might sound a little crazy, muttering that to himself up there, but THANK GOODNESS NO ONE CAN HEAR IT. Kord doesn't find it as comforting, as it shows signs of battle with horrific and unnatural beings whose destruction left only these pieces of armor and weapons presumably only there because they survived the disintegration of their owners. He decides to start following the footprints instead of fruitlessly shouting, as the trail of disturbed dust is assuredly the way to track down the man who could not have been here more than an hour or three ago.

    "Reminiscing about battles past... trying to understand how you got here, in this moment, with these people? What caused a fight like this to even be possible?"

    "Such a mad road to walk, Joestar," he murmurs, his thought process spoken aloud as he follows the trail, "But the one that leads to understanding."

    The entire castle is like a graveyard of the damned. You are quite like this Joestar. Hunters of the unnatural. Yveltal liked to talk to Kord sometimes, maybe an echo of his own thoughts or some darker part of him, or maybe words from the actual deity. Kord just gave a grunt, further displeased by how chatty his thoughts had become. The noise wasn't welcome when he's trying to be cautious in his steps.

Josuke Higashikata (1119) has posed:
    Josuke doesn't have any way to sense Jonathan, sadly. His Stand isn't going to help him here. But Priscilla seems to be able to, so he sticks near her. He does venture, "If we could find something that was his, that might have been broken and he'd have the rest of... I might be able to help find him." Though that's ridiculously specific, and from his tone he doesn't expect to have that kind of luck. But he remains nearby in case he's needed!

    As Haguro starts to search for clues, Josuke starts! "Good idea!" he offers, and starts to assist in searching for physical clues. He doesn't really know what he's looking for, and he can't ask because he can't get in touch with Jotaro just yet -- Jotaro doesn't have a radio, and he wouldn't be able to call a phone from here that his much older nephew would be able to answer. To the group at large, he notes, "If you find something broken that fixing would give more clues to, let me know!"

    As Xiaomu calls out, Josuke's sense of worry increases. There is a distinct frown on his face, and he looks rather upset by all this. "...Crap... I hope we're not too late..." he says, under his breath. He should have asked for more information before coming here! He should have gotten over his own discomfort at dealing with the Speedwagon Foundation and just FOUND OUT! What if is IS too late? What if it's too late, and he had access to the information that could have stopped it?! (Please let it not be too late...!)

Priscilla has posed:
    "That is very specific." Priscilla just says it out loud to Josuke. "I am not so certain he maketh great habit of employing items liable to break, over his own abilities." She follows. Briefly, she thinks to the bullet holes, and asks "What of expended ammunition?" That sort of counts as breaking, right?

    Regardless, if examining corpses isn't going anywhere, she'll head off on her own. Not keen on being ambushed by an undead monster out of the dark (for the Nth time), as soon as Priscilla rounds a corner, she turns herself invisible, moving through the corridors with an utterly silent gait, doing her very best to track down where she had felt a living person from, through pretty rudimentrary hot-cold. On the way, she keys the radio.

    "Count Kord. Lady Haguro. What is it that thou see?"

Haguro has posed:
"There was definitely someone here recently." Haguro responds, resisting the urge to actually touch anything in favor of trying to mentally map out the footprints. "Not very recently, but... Maybe a day or two ago? If that is the case, though, then..." She pauses, listening in on the radio conversation and frowning worriedly. "... How long was he fighting? We may need to hurry if he hasn't had time to recover and is still fighting now."

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Ultimately, all the paths taken, no matter how roundabout, lead to one space. The footprints followed by Kord, Priscilla's sensory -- the countless places of battle against the inhuman they passed through, it all took them to one place. A grand staircase that went up, up, up ...

It went on, occasionally twisting to the side, continuing its ascent for what felt like ages. A needlessly lavish extension made by Elizabeth the First in the sixteen hundreds that would lead to what had been her throne room, with a glorious overlook over Windknight's Lot. Though split through the winding, near infinite mazelike halls of the Castle, every one of those who entered would find themselves here. And in that room, disheveled by battle, a chandalier having shattered against the ground and crushed creatures that had been reduced to ash, there was a person. A man clad in strange, eccentric armor and with a decorated sword strapped to his back. Sunlight cast the room in a nicer way then that almost decrepit, dank feeling the rest of the Castle showed, by and large. The man turns; his armor is primarily composed of rings. If one were of the personality to count each one, he was adorned with exactly seventy seven rings. It had to be impossibly heavy, it should be, but it didn't seem to bother him at all.

        His gauntlet clad had reaches up to unbuckle the straps keeping his helmet in place, removing it with as smooth a motion as possible, revealing shiny black hair and a handsome face. Familiar, striking blue eyes.

        Jonathan Joestar, who had been deep in thought, bore an expression of surprise. "Who...?"

Priscilla has posed:
    There's no sense in keeping herself hidden when Priscilla recognizes who it is. It's unlikely she'll be first by a significant margin, but before she even so much as takes the opportunity to figure out who these paintings can be attributed to, her focus is entirely on the so-called archaeologist wearing a suit of armour and wielding an impressive sword. That's a little more like it.

    "We had wondered where thou had gone, Sir Joestar, but it wouldst seemeth thou were busy producing quite an impressive trail of corpses." she says, kind of out of the corner of the room. "Well, perhaps corpses is not the correct term, as they were perhaps already. Still, I am gladdened to see thee well. Though I am now even more confident in thine skill, I cannot say these matters encouraged us."

    Moving to the center of the room, she turns to look out the windows for just a moment, looking to the trick of sunlight. "So? Didst thou find the quarry thou sought, in the end? Am I to understandeth it is this 'Dio'?"

Haguro has posed:
After a lot of wandering, false alarms, and very nearly blasting a hole into a wall or three, their target has been found! Haguro's wary at first when they come across the heavily armored man, but when he reveals himself to be Jonathan Joestar, she finds herself staring even after Priscilla confirms that it is indeed him.

     "You're..? Oh! Ah..." Haguro clears her throat and manages a slow salute, never taking her eyes off of the heavily armored British man. "It's good to finally meet you. The people back in the village might be worried about you."

Josuke Higashikata (1119) has posed:
    Josuke's grown noticeably pale at all this, and those with enhanced senses will doubtless hear his heart running away with him. He'll make his way through the area with the others, possibly apart from the others at times, since he'll probably have to find his own way through the place, lacking flight or super-jumping ability.

    He stops in the destroyed room with the broken chandelier, pausing when he sees the knight. He doesn't count the rings, no. There's things he's worried about that aren't ring-armor. He does notice it though... individual rings? Or are they bound together somehow? Why would someone wear a suit of armor like that? That wasn't the fashion in this era, was it?

    The knight reveals his face then. His eyes and Josuke's aren't exactly the same... but maybe someone here would notice that they are indeed close enough to notice the resemblance. With the two of them in the same room, perhaps any similar features the two of them share would be easier to notice.

    Josuke certainly has noticed a resemblance. But to someone else he knows. The man before him shares a lot of features with Jotaro! Of course Jotaro's features are more Asian. But aside from that, the resemblance is uncanny. It leaves him briefly speechless, in fact.

    Priscilla confirms that this is Jonathan Joestar, and Josuke seems to 'wake up'. He breathes a sigh of relief, his shoulders slumping. "Whew... I was super worried..." he breathes, along the exhale. He straightens then, as Priscilla asks about Dio, and he looks to Jonathan for the answer.

    Also... manners! Jonathan is a gentleman, right? Josuke bows politely. "H-hello, Mr. Joestar. My name is Josuke Higashikata. P-pleased to meet you." He really doesn't know what to think. Other than OH THANK GOD IT'S NOT TOO LATE!

Count Kord has posed:
    "Kord, Count of Dragoni and Hand of the Concord," the man in the skull-like helmet replies with a bow when he espies Jonathan and overhears the question. "And you, Jonathan, have been absent for long enough to warrant checking in on your well-being." And then he doesn't bother to ask the man if he's doing alright because it's clear that Jonathan has only been here in investigation of the ruins. Ruins that speak of battles that happened half a year ago.

    "You do... thorough and impressive work," the Count says, gesturing with one thumb over his shoulder toward all the sights he had witnessed on the way here. "I would guess, Your Majesty, that he hasn't found his prey, if he has returned here and is combing it as much as he seems to be," he guesses aside, because he just observed that the man's attire and his roaming might suggest as much.

    "Such a restless hunter..." he murmurs, looking back and considering what might've brought the man here when it's clear the fight was months ago.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
That's a lot of rings, all right. How many doesn't really matter - not nearly as much as the fact that he's wearing that much metal, NOT articulated or power-assisted, and still moving around pretty easily.

Rather than approaching to shake hands or fistbump or anything, Xiaomu just waves to Jonathan Joestar. "Came looking for you. I'm Xiaomu, we've crossed paths a couple of times before but you might not remember me that well."

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Jonathan, his hair unkempt from all the time it spent inside of that helmet, looks somewhat sheepish of Josuke's sudden bow. "Ah...thank you, but there's no need to bow to me." Now that he had a moment to get his bearings and look at each person gathered here, he began to get a grasp on the situation. Jonathan nods to Xiaomu, he could recall meeting her in that psychic escapade and as well, in Lordran. "Is that so..? I do suppose I've been in here for a long time."

To play off his embarassment at having made them having come so far out of their way, he rubs the back of his head lightly. "Yes, that man is correct. All the battles fought here were done nearly six months ago, though..I'd wonder where you heard that name. Dio...no, when the final confrontation came, my world became conjoined with the Multiverse. It was at that time he fled with his tail between his legs."

Just remembering it made him frown deeply. His expression was almost angry. "While I appreciate the compliments to my skill, I was not the only one who came here that night. I was assisted by several others." Even if several of them had not seen the next sunrise. As the thought entered his head, his gaze drifted to the bowl of wilted roses floating about an off colored liquid. "After checking on the townsfolk, I wanted to make sure nothing had been biding its time in the sprawling halls of the Castle. And...I suppose its selfish, but I found myself studying my previous battles here. It was a valuable experience."

That Josuke boy, Jonathan couldn't help but feel..connected to him, somehow. It wasn't just a similarity of eyes, but a similarity of the soul. "I'm very sorry for making you all come all this way."

The sun was dipping below the horizon now. It suddenly brought forth a flash, a single memory.

        The sun has set and your life will go with it!

"Perhaps I've been cooped up in here too long, though."

Priscilla has posed:
    "I supposeth, then, I blame thee not for dressing for war, though I wouldst ask the particulars of such a peculiar choice of equipment at some time." says Priscilla. "Art these people known to thee personally, or simply accessories to this tragedy?" she also asks. Though questions about who else came here are tempting, they might be in poor taste, so, instead, when Jonathan goes the length of apologizing-

    "Then let us depart. Soon it shalt be dark, and miserable to navigate those winding passes by." Priscilla bends down just enough to offer her hand.

Count Kord has posed:
    "You did not make me go anywhere," Kord tells Jonathan with the vague sense of personal insult that snobby sorts might portray, but the dismissive wave he gives in the man's direction and the following statement changes the context, "I know you are not yet dead, and that is what I came here to check. I will examine the castle for a few hours after you leave, as I want to see the remains of the battle for myself. The dark is no stranger for me."

    And then Kord just kinda wanders off, having grown uneasy around all of this EMOTION... that he knows he has no answer for, as he feels it impolite to linger around a man who may very well be mourning a loss of two separate natures. Loss of friends, and a loss of a major battle.

Josuke Higashikata (1119) has posed:
    Josuke just looks immensely relieved. He inhales, as though he's about to say something, but then seems to think better of it, and doesn't say anything. Not until Jonathan speaks of being cooped up too long, and apologizes to the group. "...It's okay. I can understand it, this looks like a really big fight happened here." Probably something horrible, given how scared the people outside were. He doesn't immediately answer the concern of how they'd heard the name 'Dio', though; now that Jonathan's all right, Josuke doesn't even know how to begin explaining it all!

    Priscilla's mention of the pass reminds him. "Oh! That's right. I fixed the tunnel coming here, so you shouldn't have to go through the mountains on the way back," he offers, with a smile. And then he asserts, "It's safe, I promise."

    Kord's mention of Jonathan's battle prowess (at least he assumes that's what Kord's talking about) gets a nod. "Yeah. Even if you had help, that's still really impressive. You're really strong," he notes. Though he blinks a bit as Kord just sort of wanders off.

    "M-Mr. Joestar..." he hedges. "There's... something I need to tell you." Josuke chews his bottom lip, trying to figure out how to explain it. Then he gets an idea. A determined look comes to his face then. "You wanted to know how we know the name 'Dio'. This is why."

    He turns then, presenting his side to Jonathan. "Because he's tied up with my family." Then he reaches to pull down the collar on his left side. It's just enough to show the skin of the nape of his neck. And on that patch of skin?

    ...A star-shaped birthmark.

    Will Jonathan know what the birthmark means? Has it always persisted? Or did it start later? Hopefully Jonathan understands...

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
"Oh, this...in much older times, there existed a rite called the Challenge of Seventy Seven Rings. It was a test of fortitude and skill, and while I had no seventy seven opponents to best, the closest thing was surely making the treck through the mountains and this Castle adorned in the heavy armor of Rings."

Evidently, he'd gone through the entire mountain range -- gorge and all, wearing this heavy stuff. And if the implication were to be believed, he hadn't taken it off in days. "Ah -- I see." Kord's ..unruly personality, shall we say, didn't seem to put him down. Jonathan just smiled gently and let him wander off, he didn't believe the man was in any danger, afterall. He hoped he found something worthwhile among the remains of the Castle-wide battle waged against Dio and his lieutenants that night. Jonathan had done some soul searching, and perhaps, a little bit of grieving he hadn't had time to do beforehand.

Priscilla is answered simply, before Josuke got his attention. "We'd all come with the intent of destroying Dio, no matter the cost." In other words, they'd all marched there, knowing that they would face inhuman beasts beyond compare, at least, at the time. They'd all gone there making peace with the knowledge that the likelihood of one of them, much less all, making it out alive was small.

Then, Josuke showed him his birthmark. Instinctively, his unoccupied hand smacked over the exact same spot on his own neck. The exact same birthmark that he possessed, and that his father had before him. "T-that's..!"

        Proof of Lineage.

Jonathan's body dramatically contorted in his surprise. "But, that shouldn't be possible....unless, you're from another reality..?!"