7142/JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Gaiden Ch.1

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Gaiden Ch.1
Date of Scene:	28 March 2020
Location:	Fertile Crescent
Synopsis:	The dig begins in the Fertile Crescent, but, two unexpected visitors put an end to the progress. What's the purpose of the Golden Rhinoceros Beetle? And just who is it that sent the deadly forecast duo out to collect it?
Cast of Characters:	Jonathan Joestar, Haguro, 7002, 7222, Arcadia, Touta Konoe, Crys Gattz, 518, Rean Schwarzer, Gilgamesh, 7234

---

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
        The year is 1890.

At least, it is here. The massive steamboat everyone had been on the day prior was paid for by Jonathan Joestar, the very man who was organizing the dig they'd all be going on. His explanation was, by and large, straight-forward even if lacking certain details.

Whether a volunteer or a paid worker, Elite or common man, everyone was brought to the shore of the Fishing Village for a single goal..

To excavate the Golden Arrows from their resting place. Such an event would eventually happen in the 1980's, but Jonathan intended to beat that series of events by quite a while in order to keep their mysterious powers out of the wrong hands.

It went without saying that those hands happened to belong to his estranged, vampiric brother.

The group departs from the Village on foot after staying one night. It is now high noon the next day, and most of the regular folk who'd been hired look ready to keel over.

"I understand you all must be exhausted for now ... but, this is where we'll set up our central camp. Accounting for drift, we'll begin our dig here and move outwards."

Jonathan begins directing the various workers to begin setting up tents so that they could rest in the shade and rehydrate as necessary before they got into the real meat of their work. As for the Elites...

"Thank you all very much for coming along. With any luck, we won't have to extend the dig's radius too much before we catch onto a hint..all I know is this; we'll know we're in the right spot when we start uncovering ruins from underneath the desert."

Haguro has posed:
Today, Haguro looks more like a commoner or tourist than an Elite out on a job. Instead, she's dressed in simple outdoorsy-gear: A work vest, thick sunglasses, matching work shorts and work boots, a wide-brimmed hat, a backpack full of assorted containers and water bottles, and a gun!

Mostly a tourist. She doesn't quite fit the appearance of the regular folks by the time that hours-long hike, though, actually looking as rejuvenated and lively as she did the night before. It's a good thing she brought those extra water bottles, too, as she's more than willing to pass them out as needed (and free up space in her backpack in the process).

"I hope it goes well. These arrows sound like trouble, whatever it is they do. What sorts of ruins are we looking for here?" She asks while fanning herself with a spare hat lightly, doing a quick once over of the desert and realizing there's not much to look at out here beyond sand and cacti.

Mikoto Shimizu (7002) has posed:
"Wow, talk about retro," Mikoto says as she looks up at the steamboat.  A backpack with her and some clothes to change in, some desert supplies, and the basics.  Sure the expedition would have the stuff to survive, sure, but stuff happens and it pays to be prepared.  Walking up the plank to board the ship, she whistles a tune.  It was an adventure~!

On the boat.

Mikoto is mostly found on the deck taking every chance to get that sea breeze on her face.  Of course, she hated getting wet from rain, but on a boat was different somehow.  There was something freeing about the ocean as if the land's problems were a million miles away.  Though the occasional look at her ring finger brought her back to earth.

Port.

Mikoto takes advantage of the time to rest, though she rather enjoyed the trip.  Double-checking on her supplies and things to carry them.  Deserts aren't known for their fun, but still, she hadn't been to Egypt before, even if it wasn't HER Egypt.  

Dig Site.

The desert was a trip for her, nearly relying on the soul gem several times to get through it, she resisted the urge to leech off her limited time and push herself through the awful conditions.  Water was scarce in the desert she heard, but this was beyond belief.  Terribly hot days, freezing cold nights.  

But they were here, sitting down on a box left by some worker, she took a moment to take off her headdress and wipe the sweat out of her face and eyes.  "Deserts suck," she quips before looking at Jojo.

"So what are we looking for, and what's so special about it?" She asks, finally getting some time to loaf around and talk with the man who is funding this whole thing.  "Like what do these 'arrowheads' even do?"

Revali (7222) has posed:
Revali signed up because arrows.

That's about the extent of it. Why lie? Keeping them out of the hands of someone who shouldn't have them is a worthy endeavour, but honestly what attracted his attention to begin with is that the artifact in question is arrows.

"Digging... playing in the sand," says Revali. "Tell me there's some signs that can be spotted from the air?"

Arcadia has posed:
Arcadia was arguably one of the more fitting present, just due to being a sphinx. Though the mythos she was based on combined the Egyptian and Grecian concepts. Not that any of that is relevant beyond the location.

More interesting is the fact that she has actually been walking with the rest of the group. Not hovering above like usually does, but actually walking on the sand. Which seems to be the point -- the sand -- as she sprints up on side of a sand dune and slides down the opposite slope with glee that would give a child a run for their money. "Nyaa~. It's sand. Real sand! Most of what was once silicate particulate in The Line has been pressed and baked into fields of glass."

Well that explains why she's so excited about the most common thing in miles.

Touta Konoe has posed:
    Touta shows up cause he wants to make sure that the Multiverse doesn't think all vampires are assholes...

    In actuality though, Touta's here for one reason only. He needed to get out of the Fairyland Hall. While he had told a certain someone that Mikoto would be fine, and that he was fine, he couldn't convince Yukihime to not let him go...

    While the spikey-haired vampire was on this adventure, for those who had known him a bit better would have noticed something...He has been incredibly quiet. Like, disturbingly so this entire trip. While usually he'd be making remarks possibly about the time period, or the geographical location, to any other random things, Touta hadn't really been saying anything to anyone unless he was mentioned. Upon the boat ride Touta said nothing, upon reaching the village he said nothing. Besides helping the regular folk with cargo and loooking at some sort of card he had brought with him he really seemed like he had been in deep thought the entire trip. In fact, he's been staring at the card for most of the trip with a melancholy look on his face...

    Yet as Jonathan makes his explanations and elaborates on the details, he's focused intently on listening as he puts the card away. Except...he isn't. The card still was in his hand, gripped probably as carefully and as leashed to his hand as that black katana that he never seemed to have a sheathe for.

Crys Gattz has posed:
Crys Gattz had experience with these sorts of digs, her life early on had featured heavily with such things. It hadn't taken much for Jonathan to get the Newman's interest. She'd accepted terms of the job and got the basic details about it.

Some megalomaniac ages ago formed a handful of arrows form a strange meteorite. Those arrows could awaken supernatural powers in living beings though there a price, it might just kill the subject. She got the idea that could be serious she'd made sure her photon gauntlet had a full load of gear and supplies as well.

She would also be wearing a cloak along with using her hair to hide her ears. No need to cause a panic right? She would be on the boat and enjoy the trip. She'd likely even pestered Mikoto to play a few hands of cards at some point during the trip. With the pot being for various candies.

Dig site.

"Sounds like you have a solid plan. Mr. Joestar."

She knows she's muscle, she'll make note of the site and looks over to Arcadia and tilts her head.

"Well there's no shortage here, this desert covers the northern half of this contient if I recall stuff on Earth right."

She's flipped her hood down at this point too and her ears wiggle slightly like she's trying to listen in on something.

Yuuki Kuran (518) has posed:
Mysterious powers?
The wrong hands??
SAND???

Why, it's EGYPT, and that means it's HOT and DRY and SUNNY and a certain helpful brown-haired girl who is comedically overdressed in an entirely too heavy fuzzy coat with hood that hangs around her back under her long locks, and an entirely appropriate pair of eye-occluding sunglasses.

Kuran Yuuki raises a hand, index finger questioning. "Johnathan, perhaps I'm not an archaeologist and thus not 'hip' to the 'lingo', but if this is a dig..." She gestures out towards the desert landscape and the camp. "Will we be needing shovels?"

In broad beating daylight Yuuki lets out a heaving yawn. "Or is it a metaphorical 'dig'?"

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
Rean rides in on the steamboat, spending most of the ride talking to and checking in on the people here he recognizes and watching the ocean. It's nice, though, and it's been a while since he's gotten to be on the ocean. He's geared out for this,

He's been in his share of ruins at this point, both on his own world and otherwise. He grabs one of Haguro's water bottles on their trek across the  desert, and if she lets him, pokes her about other people who look like they might need water too and offers to hand them out to people for her.

He also offers to help out with setting up the base camp despite very much not being a 'normie' as well. He might be here to be muscle, but he's a helpful bean.

Gilgamesh has posed:
     "Huhuhahahahaha!"

     The problem with the King of Heroes is that he is simultaneously never, ever subtle, and also frequently extremely surprising.

     Take, for instance, this specific case.

     That laugh announces his presence long before the party can see him at the dig site. He didn't follow them, and he didn't come with them, and he certainly wasn't hired. Gilgamesh is standing over the dig site imperiously (as though he ever stands any other way), arms crossed over his chest, hair slicked back in the spikey war-guise he almost never wears. His shining golden armor glints in the sunlight with his dangling golden earrings. His red sash flutters around his waist in the desert sun.

     "What's this? A group of mongrels in my own back yard?"

     The King plants his foot on the back of one of the workers, whether the man likes it or not, and drapes one arm over his knee, locking eyes with the rest of the party. "You know that stealing from the King is a crime punishable by death, don't you, dogs?" The sneer on his face says everything. He taps his foot against the worker's back. "I should kill you all to send a message to the rest of your kind. Digging in the sand as if property is abandoned simply because the owner isn't there." The air ripples with gleaming golden light at the King's commentary - as if the air itself is ready to attack on his command.

     "But."

     Gilgamesh removes his foot from the worker and tilts his head to the side. "I'm feeling merciful today, mongrels. Let's call it a remnant of the Gilsmas spirit."

     He snaps his fingers and a chair appears behind him, which he immediately sits in. "You might bring me some entertainment. You might find something that belongs to me and spare me the effort of digging through the dirt like the filthy dogs you are. So instead of killing you all, I think I'll be gracious and help you out with my encouraging words and magnanimous direction! You should be grateful! That's right! Go on and thank me for my mercy and my aid! Praise me more!"

     Yeah he's *clearly* in a good mood.

     He does, however, produce a gold-goblet drink for, and nod respectfully to, one person, a physical statement of 'you're not included in the aforementioned mongrels, we cool.'

     It's Yuuki Kuran.

     Even the King of Heroes knows better than to disrespect his girlfriend(?)'s best friend.

     Everybody else though, y'all gettin' the Full Gilgamesh.

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Jonathan remains standing. He's clad in relatively simple, beige clothing along with a white ascot. A wide brimmed, brown hat sat slanted on his head to go along with the brown boots on his feet and the leather braces on his arms. A very, very tiny backpack was strapped to his back, but really, it was more likely just a trick of the eye; the object was just small in comparison to the giant man carrying it.

Jonathan himself took the moment to dab the sweat off his face before responding. Despite his incredible endurance and tenacious nature, the trip had taken its tolls on him, as well. "It's possible there might be a little bit of the ruin poking up underneath, but ... as far as I'm aware Mr. ... I'm sorry, Revali, was it? My apologies. I wouldn't count on it, but it would be incredibly helpful if you wouldn't mind looking, just in case. More than likely, however ... the entire thing will be deeply buried under the desert itself, just as Atlantis rests at the bottom of the sea ... so did this Kingdom sink below the sands."

Jonathan pushes his hat up with one finger, dramatically. "A long time ago..longer than even the ancient pharaohs, there was a man who aspired for much. A tyrant by any means ... or so I've been informed. The gist is this...that he was able to obtain a rare metal and forged it into a series of arrowheads. These weapons hold the power to awaken certain supernatural powers in living creatures. A Stand, or something similar to a Persona, are avid examples."

"I know it may sound odd and perhaps irresponsible, but ... you'll know it when you see it. The ruins, that is ... they're made from dark gray stone. An anomaly for the time period they were supposedly from, isn't it?"

The gravity of his posture and tone deflate as Yuuki speaks up. The large man chuckles sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "W-well...yes, we've come equipped with shovels."

As if to reinforce what he'd said, some of the heartier workers he'd hired were already unpacking. Pretty much all of them had picks, shovels, and small hand-spades. "Of course, if you have some other way than a shovel to perform the task, then by all means! It's a benefit of so many talented people coming together."

The man Gilgamesh steps on in his sudden appearance buckles with a groan. His hair is straw-colored, his jaw strong and his eyes a soft green. He struggles under-boot, briefly, but ... his instincts informed him that if he acted out too much, or raised his head from the ground, he might incite the man's wrath. Being stomped on like a bug was infuriating, but his self-preservation won out. Besides that, if the golden clad man became enraged, he intuitively knew that it'd be a bloodbath.

Jonathan frowns briefly before taking the appearance in stride. "I ... I see ... in that case, we're all very honored to have the King of Sumeria to lend his gaze to us."

It's not as if he was licking boot. Jonathan did respect him, himself an archaeologist and historian before certain events dictated a relative change in vocation. But at the same time...well, Gilgamesh is Gilgamesh. Let's leave it at that.

Revali (7222) has posed:
Revali *stares* at Gilgamesh.

The crest of feathers on top of his head rise a bit.

"... Yeah. Alright. I'll go take a look from the air. Being anywhere but here is real appealing all of a sudden - for some reason."

He takes off, a bit of dust being kicked up, and takes to the air, ascending in lazy circles around the perimeter of the camp as he does a quick glance about...

... and once he's at a good altitude, he starts properly searching, mentally dividing the area into a grid pattern and proceeding methodically through it, looking for any signs of the supposedly 'totally submerged' ruins.

... Or anyone in need of help. The point is to get to these arrows before other people can get their hands on them... it'd stand to reason that those 'other people' might show up and cause trouble.

Yuuki Kuran (518) has posed:
Johnathan Joestar, ENGLISH ELEGANCE, is interrupted by Yuuki's rather simple question - and deflates as he gestures towards shovels and The Help.

Yuuki is gifted both a FINE GOBLET and a DISPROPORTIONATELY MAGICAL PROTO-UMBRELLA. It has a little thumb-button and everything, truly the most treasured among the treasury. Extending and unfurling the sun-breaking cloth of the umbrella, and taking a sip from the chalice, she smiles and nods at Gilgamesh in turn, palpable relief evident in her cheeks and from the upturning of the corners of her mouth.

"I seem to lack hands for shovelry, Johnathan, but perhaps you could answer a question that I have? Another one, I know."

"If we are searching for ruins containing a magic set of arrows, should we be searching - and digging - towards any local sources of magic?"

Yuuki gestures towards Gilgamesh. "Perhaps the King of Heroes has some sort of magic dowsing rod in his grand collection? That way, we can find a clue quickly, and get to the real expedition-exploration part of things! And not the..."

Yuuki's smiling expression dims. Not to the level of a grimace, but it is certainly SOME form of distaste. "... digging. If anyone else has some ability to sense magic, or even open spaces under the sands, that could be a big help!"

Arcadia has posed:
Either the bombastic display goes over her head or Arcadia is just too enthused to be on an actual archeological trip find a lost and ancient kingdom to care. (It's probably mostly the latter) This is one of the things outside her role of guardian she was intended for, and that quickly overrides any annoyance she would bother with.

"Already on it!," she off-handedly answers Yuuki. "If there is any clues to be found, we'll find them." With that the sphinx spreads her wings and takes to the air over the site. Things will got a lot faster if they don't have to randomly dig up half the desert looking for hints. Getting this to move along smoothly is all the motivation she really needs.

Once overhead Arcadia activates her magitek visor and switches it to scanning mode, from a vantage point she can sweep over a larger portion of the area. Her main consideration is that the ruins being made of stone are likely cooler than the sands constantly exposed to the harsh sunlight, but there could also be ley lines near by. Or just the very off chance something does manage to stick out of the sand. We're not going to discount any possible options here.

Mikoto Shimizu (7002) has posed:
Mikoto stands up from her box for a moment, rummaging in her bag and pulls out a canteen full of water.  She pours some over the head wrap and puts it back on.  There, that's much better.  Cooler, and taking a sip of water, she listens to Jojo's plot dialogue.  Huh...supernatural powers?  That was something that caught her ear.  Maybe she could use that for herself?  Another power that wasn't a time bomb.

Rean catches her eye, and he gets a wave, and her gaze moves to Touta acting like a zombie, which gets her concern.  Her eyes spotting the card, and sighing a bit.  She recognizes it almost immediately and leans back.  That was going to be a conversation, a conversation and a half.

However, GILGAMESH arrives and drags her attention to him.  This passes to Yuuki as she makes some suggestions.  "Sorry, I can only sense witches.  I...guess I could summon some burrowing creatures," Mikoto muses, but she wasn't going to pick up a shovel, that's the /helps/ job.

Towards the King of Hero's again, "So sassiness aside, I am pretty sure that Egypt's at least as old (if not older) than Summer.  You're not a liar, so does this mean someone in Egypt was ruling it?  If so then does that not give them just as much right in rule than you?  Or is it some specific thing?"

Towards Jojo, "So I assume the place this thing is hidden in is dangerous and trapped?  Sounds...like fun!"

Haguro has posed:
Rean gets to help Haguro help at getting people sufficiently hydrated. Good teamwork! That doesn't last long, though, as their goal becomes more apparent with Jonathan's explanation.

The target: Magic arrows. The method: Digging. The sign: Ruins.

Haguro's ready to get to work. She's even looking ready to grab a shovel, but the ideas being tossed around give her some ideas on how to proceed. That specific type of laughter being tossed around by Gilgamesh has her twitching just a bit, but she keeps her cool well enough to raise a hand in a slow slaute in his direction.

Wait. She was trying not to bring work or professionalism into this dig today. Habits are hard to suppress, thoug, and she sighs to herself before turning to the sand itself. "If someone is strong enough to maneuver an entire ship around, I could change and..."

She seems somewhat hesitant about the suggestion. "...Act like an oversized spade." It's the next suggestion that takes a while forher to really start speaking up, though. "Or if we can get a deep enough hole going, I can jump in and transform."

Somehow, she sounds more uncomfortable about that second idea. "Although that might be risky if I bump into any fragile ruins as I... Embiggen? Biggify? I know I've heard that first one before..."

Damocles (7234) has posed:
Did someone say MAGIC?   As if summoned by the mention of magic, there's a brief flicker of violet flame, almost too fast for the human eye to notice, and then Damocles appears nearby the gathered peoples.   It took him a little long to get here, mostly because you'd be amazed at how BIG a planet can be.  Like, you live in space and you start to think of a planet as just 'a place', but no, turns out every planet is a huge mass of places in itself.  Who knew?

He's quiet for a bit after his appearance, taking a moment to get the feel of the room.  He knows they're here looking for an ancient magical artifact, some arrows or something.  He'll figure the rest out as they go. 

Magic is something he has a sense for.  Even when it isn't magic from the Warp, his ability to sense energy from his own dimension seem to translate well enough, if he's close enough.  However, as a scholar, he also doesn't like the idea of just tearing though the location willy-nilly.  Plus, walking around the desert sniffing around doesn't sound fun.  But oh well. The reality of doing science was often way less fun than he thought it would be.

"I suppose I could take a look around," Damocles offers, finally breaking his silence.  "If it isn't buried too deep, I might be able to sense it."

Crys Gattz has posed:
This job was going wonderful the crew seemed pretty good. Without warning, a social event along the lines of nails on a chalkboard happens. A certain Sumerian demi-god shows up. The good newsie he seems to be in good spirits and has not started killing.

She also knows Lady Priscilla is very fond of him. She swallows her pride and looks to the King of Heroes for a moment.

"King Gilgamesh."

She will turn her attention back to Jonathan for the moment and listens to them nodding, Yuuki's comment about shovels gets a smile out of the Newman as she thinks where best to put her skills to use she's is however uneasy for obvious reasons.

She's going to aid in the ground search for any signs of the ruins. This is going to not be an easy task, still the hint Jojo gave the team. About dark gray stone? That will be useful as such a colour would stick out in the burning sands.

"It's what I was born to do myself Mikoto."

She pauses for a moment, taps on her gauntlet a candy bar appears in hand and she'll pass it over to Mikoto.

"Anything else we should keep in mind Mr. Joestar?"

Gilgamesh has posed:
     The wise digger does not resist the King. This is wise, because he is correct - the King probably would've crushed him like an ant if he had. Gilgamesh is not known for mercy when it comes to things that are his treasures.

     Still, Jonathan's acknowledgment of his fame and how it runs before him obviously gets the King preening a little. It makes him far more receptive to Yuuki's request than he might otherwise be, too.

     "Huhuhahahaha. Something that simple isn't beyond me at all!"

     The Gate of Babylon yawns wide. Glittering portals, ripples in the air, open around him, darkening the land simply by their respective brightness - and making it somewhat hard to look at the King himself, since his armor is shiny and gold on top of the shiny and gold portals.

     This is *probably* by design.

     He throws out his arms. "Behold!"

     What falls out are, indeed, rods. But they aren't...*dowsing* rods, per se.

     They're rocks.

     They're rocks graven with all sorts of lines and designs that are damn near impossible to make out. But they're also rocks with *overwhelming* magical energy - it's such that even someone who isn't magical can probably feel it. Each and every one of them is a Noble Phantasm of some sort, a prototype of some other magic rock or stone or device in the future. One of them falls into the King's hand, and he sort of tosses it up and down in his gauntlet. Midway between the stone going up and coming down, his armor disappears, leaving him in a very definitely Babylonian robe, with a bright gold necklace around his neck, bright gold bracelets around his wrists, and bright gold ankle-lets around his legs. It looks great on him. Everything looks great on him. It's some kind of superpower for sure.

     "This should suit fine," Gilgamesh says idly. "Tap the stone twice and think of what you are looking for. It will light up in a vague direction, which should give those with more accurate sensory abilities a better place to start looking."

     Haguro gets an eyebrow-raise. Mikoto gets straight up ignored. Crys simply gets a noncommittal "mmm", and Damocles gets a similar eye-raise as Haguro.

     Then, the King leans back in his throne. Several palm fronds emerge from the Gate around him, being waved by clay dolls in the vague shape of people. Even the palm fronds are Noble Phantasms. That's absolutely horseshit.

     On the upside it is certainly cool and refreshing in his near area.

     "I remember," Gilgamesh says idly, "When this was Carcho."

     There's a quiet, distant look in his eye as the fronds are blown across his face, rippling his hair. "It wasn't so long ago, for me. For you it is the dust of history. For me it is but three or four years ago."

     His eyes light up, an ominous red that for a brief moment confounds all the stones into flashing a dangerous pattern like bombs. "I will thank you not to tell me my own history to my face. That is your last warning."

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
And thus the King of Heroes makes his entrance once again. Rean sighs, rubbing his temples for a second before returning to helping set up camp. He does return Mikoto's wave and...Touta seems down about something. He's not sure what the deal is with the card, though, so that might be a question for later. Probably not the best time to ask about it.

While the others are scouting, Rean picks up a shovel and hoists it over his shoulder. Probably wouldn't be a good idea to just randomly start digging, at least not until there's a direction to go in.

Touta Konoe has posed:
    Touta's eyes seem lost in the vastness of the desert. Even the unexpected radiance of the King of Heroes, or the presence of the other vampire Yuuki who he hasn't seen in forever is enough to immediately awaken Touta from his stupor. His mind had been blank, and seemed to have been more deep in thought than most. If anything would have seemed like a 'lost child' right now, it probably would have looked like Touta the way he just seemed to stare into the desert as if noticing something in the sands. But there's nothing.

    It's only coincidence and time that he snaps from his stupor, realizing he's not been paying enough attention he speaks up awkwardly and with a much lower tone of voice than he usually does to try and see if he somewhat recalled the goal. 'Dig up sand'? Sounds like it apparently.

    Yet even when he's participating it seems like there's something off with the young man. The way he looks for his tools. The way he puts away other items. The way he could have spoken up to Haguro about being strong enough to probably help push her around, or listen to the others as they offer their suggestions. But instead...It falls on deaf ears as he pulls out his hoop.

    He walks over to the dig sight and starts spinning that hoop around his hips, hell even the way he's spinning that hoop makes it seem like it's taking longer than usual but eventually it spins at a rapid speed, and the air around Touta begins to circulate. The gales so strong that the sand around Touta's vaccinity begins to spiral around his body almost like a small sand tornado. It's clearly whipping up the sound from the area and removing the upper layer but...Touta's being careless. Even if it's unintentional the sand that gets scooped up is just being shirked around as it leaves the cone of his tornado and likely getting on some people, on equipment...If the sand is bold enough, it might even be flying off near Gilgamesh dirtying his fancy robed attire...Oh boy...

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Shaking his head to Crys, Jonathan smiles apologetically. "I'm afraid not. That's about all I can think of ... "

Shifting uncomfortably, he turns to Mikoto. "Actually, technically speaking, this place ... it's called the Fertile Crescent. Part of it lays primarily within Egypt and part of it within where the Babylonian Empire stood. I suppose a good analogy would be to say we're in the proverbial 'back yard', having hopped his neighbor's fence."

Keeping it brief, Jonathan figured she wasn't actually too interested in a history lesson. Even so, he couldn't help but share his knowledge. "It's said that this is where agriculture was born. A funny thought, looking at it now, hm?"

Whatever else he might have had to say is cut short as Gilgamesh changes almost spontaneously and provides his aide. And along with it, a warning. 'Carcho...so that's what this place was called, at least, at some point.'

Jonathan would be sure to remember it for research's sake.

    IN THE SKY:

Revali, having gone up first, is the first one to notice the oddity. Storm clouds. Of all the places in the world, storm clouds are gathering in the sky and beginning to form. It shouldn't take long for Arcadia to catch up to him.

And much to possible chargrin, there was no sign of Carcho from the sky.

    CAMP:

"That was a rather good idea of you, Miss." Jonathan says to Yuuki. Meanwhile, a frail looking young man no older than seventeen approaches Damocles. "U..uhm...excuse me. Mister Joestar waved me over here to tell you he doesn't mind your assistance, if you're volunteering. His only stipulation is that you not take off with anything you find."

The digging seems to be going well. Jonathan uses the stones to help direct workers and specialists like Haguro and Touta. "The idea has merit, but, it'd perhaps be a better idea to save it for desparate times." he says, with a gentle laugh. She had a good point about breaking the ruins, unfortunately.

Damocles (7234) has posed:
Shockingly, kings in gold aren't something that are unfamiliar to Damocles, who isn't very impressed with the guy simply by virtue of Glilgamesh's similarity to another emperor he could name. 

Well, not NAME, but offer several titles for.  He has no idea what that guy's name is.

Gilgamesh then unleashes a host of portals that drop out magical artifacts.  Two glowing eyes narrows a little under Damocles's hood, and he raises a hand in Gilgamesh's direction.  "That was...Awesome!  How'd you do that?"  Without waiting for an answer, he reaches down and picks up one of the rocks.

They'll show you a vague direction of whatever you're looking for, huh?  Well, now he's just GOT to test that. The scientist and engineer in him demands he do some testing on this. So, he starts assigning the rock some things to look for.

Tap tap.  "Find Damocles."

Tap tap.  "Find King Gilgamesh."

Tap tap.  "Find air."

Tap tap.  "Find the rock that shows the direction of things you're looking for."

Tap tap.  "Find ten minutes ago."

Tap tap.  "Find justice."

Mikoto Shimizu (7002) has posed:
Mikoto takes a moment to stand, turn towards Gilgamesh, and bow deeply.  It was custom, as part of an apology.  "I apologize, I went too far in it and was being too arrogant." She says and then returns to her spot.  "I am genuinely interested in the times of early humanity.  A lot we don't know, and it sounds like a lot of adventure happened.  

Jojo steps in and corrects her, she thinks about it for a moment.  "I guess that's true.  Anyway, it's on me." She says not dismissively, but with an air of 'it's over, I accept responsibility, let's move on.'  

This is just as a kick of sand flies towards her, causing her to cough and try and spit the sand off.  She gives her brother a glare and pours some water over her face to clean it off.  

She turns her head towards Damocles.  "How do you find Ten minutes ago?  That's silly," She says, "And clearly it's meant to find physical things in the physical world, not concepts."  She looks at hers for a moment.  "The strongest magical source here."

Haguro has posed:
That's a no go on theship-transformation idea, but Haguro was expecting that. "Right... Maybe after we figure out where it is and if we need to clear out a large area around the site, then." She offers, glancing over at Damocles as he appears rather suddenly. That magic he wields draws a curious look from her, but she doesn't linger on it for too long as she catches one of those strange stones tossed around by Gilgamesh.

"... This could work. If we're all doing a more directed search, then we should find it in no time!" She offers, sounding almost optimistic despite a slight dullness in her tone. It's not an overwhelmingly strong dullness, but those closer to Haguro might notice that slightly forced tone in her voice.

She certainly notices some of that strangeness from Touta, but she's not quite sure how to approach him about that. Luckily, Mikoto's on the case, so she leaves that to her! That leaves Haguro to focus on the physical work.

She's actually pretty okay with that today. Much easier than getting stuck in her own thougts. She alternates between searching for arrowheads and digging, moving around every few feet of digging to try and get a wide perimeter drawn around where each use of the stone points her towards.

Gilgamesh has posed:
     "Funny." Gilgamesh's anger subsides as he looks at the sand. "Funny."

     He doesn't say anything more about the topic of agriculture. Normally he might brag about Sumerian Bread or Babylonian Beer but at the moment he's simply just sort of...nostalgic. The look on his face, the distant eyes, the thoughtful frown.

     "It was Carcho. It wasn't very large. A little fort. It was a village first, but there were always troubles. My reign may have been perfect but humans never are."

     He runs his fingers through his hair, and it falls back down around his face as he sits, staring at the horizon. "I came this way once a year, to let them see my face. More...possibly when I was a child. That part of my memory remains hazy. But I remember playing here. I remember nooks and crannies." He waves his hand at a distant spot. "A storehouse over there. It was stocked with grain in the winter, but in the summer, when I came around, it was empty, so the children would use it for casting stones to play with."

     Another wave. "A guard tower, here. I would greet him with a wave as a child. I do not think I ever learned his name. He died in an attack by a neighboring kingdom. I ground them out under my heel."

     He leans forward, staring into the distance. "There was a pond there. An underground spring that bubbled up. I hear it froze in the winter, but in the summer I came by to sit under the shade with local beauties."

     "It was not a large town, Carcho. Time and tide wore down the cheer into a fort, and then, I suppose, the sands of history claimed it, as they must all things."

     Meanwhile, Damocles, playing with the stone, gets some entertaining results. The stone blinks at Damocles when he pokes it for himself. It blinks all around when it asks him to find air. It blinks once in each direction any other rock is in. It does not blink for ten minutes ago.

     For both 'King Gilgamesh' and 'Justice' it points at the gleaming golden jackass on the massage throne.

     It probably does the same for 'the strongest magical source here', being as the man on the throne is a literal demigod draped out in literal mythological precursor artifacts, though it might also blink at Yuuki, who is a bullshit vampire.

     "You may want to be more specific."

Crys Gattz has posed:
Crys Gattz pays attention as the King of Heros speaks again and offers help she'll scoop up one of the rocks and follows his directions on its use she'll focus on golden arrows and will set to work. This should let her support the more skilled people in this area.

"Thank you."

She notes to the King of Heroes it's time to get to work. She'll nod to Jojo.

"Right time to get hunting."

The hulking form of Damocles gets The Newman's attention or a moment, but she's got work to do.

She gets the alert about the weather and will set out upon the dunes in search area to hunt.

She also makes a note to return Gil's stone when this is over. She also calls out to the space marine.

"Come on! Get to work big man."

Revali (7222) has posed:
"Hmm..."

Revali, flying through the sky, regards the stormclouds.

"Maybe..."

He flaps his wings harder, ascending further into the sky, trying to get up above the forming clouds. He does some quick calculations in his head, picking out an unoccupied stretch of desert and positioning himself at a tangent to the line between the mass of stormclouds and that point...

Smoothly, he spins around in the air, grabbing his bow from its back holster as well as a specific arrow from his quiver. He aims and fires and re-holsters his bow, all within the space of less than a half-second.

The exact meteorogical science behind it is lost on the Hyrule native, but he understands that stormclouds are full of lightning, and that lightning wants to get out and get to the ground. The phrase 'path of ionization' doesn't occur to him, but he knows that sometimes the lightning just needs to be 'shown the way' to the ground.

The lightning arrow he's fired through the cloud should show it a clear path to get all of that pesky dangerous lightning out of the clouds and into the unoccupied bit of ground... or so he hopes.

Arcadia has posed:
Arcadia joined Revali in the air, but as her attention was on scanning over the desert below them she doesn't notice the storm starting to loom in the skies until the Rito points it out. She cuts off her scanning to turn and regard the meteorlogical formation as well, frowning when it's pointed out that shouldn't occur naturally in this region.

"We may have unwanted company," she mutters, though Revalia is the only one near enough to hear the utterance. It might just be a freak phenomenon... But Arcadia has been ruin hunting and dungeoning enough to know things rarely work out so simply when anomolous activity strikes up.

She flies after Revalia, pausing to watch as he uses his bow to shoot an arrow into the clouds. "Um. I don't think shooting them is going to--" Then realizes the lightning charge. "--Oooo. Are you attempting to fluxate the eletrified nature of the clouds to redirect the ionized energies towards the surface and essentially ground them?"

Being from a more advanced society its less of a surprise she has a better grasp on the scientific details. "But that you do that with a -bow- is really cool!"

Revali (7222) has posed:
Revali turns towards Arcadia.

"The clouds are full of lightning, and the lightning wants to go into the ground," he explains to her, as though tutoring a failing student. "It's that simple."

Arcadia has posed:
The sphinx's tail gives a vagely annoyed swatch at the reply. "That's what I just said," she points out. Oh boy, culture is clashing as much as the lightning.

Yuuki Kuran (518) has posed:
Yuuki gives another of her 'way too tired to be awake right now, but, despite that, I am awake right now' to Johnathan. "I admit, I'm not too good at solving puzzles, Johnathan. But I have some small experience in leading people around. Generally, the trick is..."

Yuuki leans in perilously close to JoJo's ear. "You just tell people to do what they already are going to do, or, remind them of their specialties. Works wonderfully!"

Even a useless puzzle-solver has to have *some* talents!

Finger-waving at Touta as he returns to the sunny waking world and notices her, she addresses him - by name! "Touta! Ah, it has been too long. How are you? How have you been since..."

Even the pale girl can get a bit paler as she realizes what she's done, her memory jogged by Touta's presence. "... Zero and I ghosted you on that meeting at your inn. Oh, I'm so sorry! We should make formal arrangements sometime soon, yes!"

She doesn't really give him time or room to argue.

Gilgamesh relates a rather riveting story of the past history, which gives Yuuki an idea. "Gilgamesh, if you're familiar with this area, would you remember any ancient sites that could hold a magic treasure? If these arrows are what Johnathan seeks, perhaps you found them in a different world! That's quite a hint!"

Back to Johnathan. "Well, that sounds rather unpleasant. A storm in the desert?"

"Why does it 'standing' have anything to do with anything?"

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
Rean's standing just a BIT too close to Touta when he starts hula hooping, which means that he's right in the path of the little sand storm he's kicking up. "Hey, Touta--!" Rean shouts, taking a bunch of sand to the mouth. He backs away, spitting out sand and rubbing his mouth on his forearm, deciding to just let him do his thing.

Gilgamesh starts getting testy towards Mikoto's questions, and it looks like he might have to step in to defuse things...But Mikoto handles it well enough, and the situation is thankfully cleared up. Rean lets out a sigh or relief, and listens to Gilgamesh describe how the area was in his time. He was still extremely /Gilgamesh/ about it, but his world didn't have an Egypt or Carcho-equivalent as far as he knew, so it was interesting to listen to.

Rean takes one of the crested dowsing stones, turning it over in his hands. "Golden Arrows..." Rean murmurs, trying to form an image in his mind of what they're looking for. He tries to take everything he's heard so far into account as he thinks- The meteor it was hewn from, the Persona-like power it apparently bestowed...Maybe these things would help the stone be more accurate? And finding where the arrows were might lead them to whoever was making this unnatural storm.

Gilgamesh has posed:
     Yuuki asks him about treasures in the area. Gilgamesh crosses his arms and is obviously deep in thought. "Asking me to pinpoint where treasures were is much like asking a farmer to tell where a specific grain of wheat is amidst his crops. I don't remember. I rarely remember where most of my treasures come from. It's possible that I possess these arrows, but it's equally possible that they went unfound and are simply mine by right as King rather than because they were stolen from me."

     "Although really the concept is one and the same," he adds, waving his hand.

     "But no. Treasure is an instinct to me. I came here because I expected treasure to be here. I simply followed that instinct. It was the same then. I would simply go wherever my instincts for adventure and treasure led me. Then I would kill the monsters and take the treasure and throw it into my vault and carry on."

     He shrugs his shoulders. "No. I don't remember anything near Carcho like that. It was a thoroughly unremarkable place. Pleasant. But unremarkable."

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
    IN THE SKY:

Revali's arrow pulls the lightning from the clouds, drawing it all down to the ground. It releases it all in a massive lightning strike. Yet the clouds themselves continue moving forward. Creeping like a living thing, it wriggles angrily at them. But it seems otherwise harmless. After all, it's only drizzling rain with increasing velocity as it moves along. It'll be several hours before it reaches camp, but by then, it'll be a downpour.

Even if it were an attack of some kind, it seems rather limp.

    AT CAMP:

In the far, far distance, lightning strikes. Many of the normal workers are already getting the creeps, despite looking forward to the cool and refreshing rainwater. Work continues, as does idle chatter.

It takes several hours before the clouds begin to pour in, angry and seething. "H..hey! I found something! It's not much, but ... g-get that kid with the hoola hoop over here!"

Signs that they were looking in the right places had been unearthed. Crumbled tops of walls or towers. Bits of shattered stair, seemingly long displaced from its proper spot. But the workers had largely already started filing off with the appearance of rain clouds. "We can take care of it later, ya know? Mister Joestar said it was fine to huddle up until the storm passed!"

"What'd you find anyway?" "I'm not sure...it's some kind of key, I think." "Are you yanking my chain?! That's -- "

It was raining hard, now. "Aw, jeez ... come on, let's get ... inside .... "

The first man, who had discovered a 'key' fell over dead. His body looked like it'd been pierced by a thousand knives in an instant, thoroughly flecheted. Standing above him, floating on seemingly nothing at all, was a man in a dark black coat and an equally dour rubber suit that covered him completely, except for the mask adorning his face, colored white and streaked with a depiction of a colorful rainbow. "Uh...oouh...UWAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!"

The worker screams in fright before being silenced, his head removed from his shoulders rather mysteriously. Bending down, the sole survivor of this brief incident takes up the key. "Thank you very much. I promise, it's not in vain."

His voice is polite, almost servile.

Jonathan's arrival is quick, having heard the screaming from his tent. His water bottle was left on the ground suddenly as he glared ferociously at the murderer, crackling with Hamon. "What are you doing?! You -- "

    "Don't you dare move .. Jonathan Joestar!"

The man in black roars at him, pointing a finger dramatically while twisting his body, briefly showing off his musculature. He was thinner than the englishman by far, but still as fit as an olympian. "The water still seeping down your throat..the water you're drinking. You can already feel it. It's been frozen solid ... and if you move even an inch, that ice won't move with it. You'll tear your own neck out. So stay put, if you know what's good for you!"

Touta Konoe has posed:
    Touta's sand removal maneuver sems effective enough at first. He's clearing out a reasonable amount but hears Rean's shouting as he realies he's causing friendly fire! "Ah?! Sorry Rean!" He ends up stopping the sand from flying, not the hoop, as he heads over to the young man. "My bad, I wasn't really thinking straight on that one...On the bright side, being that aware now does make him attentive to the fact Gil's handing out magical stones to everone, and Touta makes an effort to catch it with his shirt or something or just give it to Rean cause he's not trying to get blamed by Gil for breaking his toys.

    Though just as he's about to try and get back to work Yuki notices him. Truth be told...He actually hadn't talked to her this entire trip, which was probably odd since he was usually such a big mouth. Though when she comes his way to greet him, he can't help but try to force a smile, forcing a chuckle as she cuts herself off. Though something in what she says ends up making him seem uncomfortable. "Hey, it's fine it's fine. You're a big wig of the Concord, I'm not expecting special treatment just to have you both hang out. Besides, I get how it is. Even Mikoto doesn't show up a few days at a time cause of Concord work. Can only imagine what they have you doing. Though..." She really isn't giving him time to argue but well, "Yeah...We'll see...Things have been busy...Though Maybe you can have Mikoto help you set up a time just in case?"

    Though once that conversation ends the notice of the storm is definitely picked up on. Though it definitely seems way too...'Out of the blue'? "Hey, Jonathan what are the odds something like that even happens in the desert anyway? Like don't storms only happen every few months or something?"

Gilgamesh has posed:
     Gilgamesh has mostly been sitting about, being an asshole at people for the entire time. He hasn't really helped besides the magic compass rocks, he hasn't really offered anyone who isn't Yuuki a drink or anything to relax them or break the cool, he hasn't really even gotten up from his lounging in his own shade. When the rain starts he just snaps his fingers and a pavillion springs up around him and his statues.

     Then something Interesting happens.

     A man dies to a screaming lunatic, who then picks up a key and declares that it's for a good cause. Gilgamesh leans to this side, his chin on his hand. "Hohhhh, what's that? Something more interesting than watching peasants dig in the dirt?"

     'The water you're drinking right now, the rainwater is frozen in your throat'

     Gilgamesh puts his hand on his head.

     "HUHUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!"

     The laughter echoes out around the digsite, bounding off tent and pole amidst the pouring rain. "Mongrel! You dare imply that the King would ever allow mere rainwater to touch his tongue, let alone work its way into his throat?! What do you take me for? A pauper?!"

     He leans back in his chair. "Ahhh. But that was funny, dog. That was very funny. It was foolishly daring but amusingly so. And I am in a mood for amusement of a less bloody kind. So instead..."

     A coin appears out of nowhere. Gilgamesh flips it idly in his finger. "You want the arrows, don't you? I can't allow you to steal from me. But I might allow you to have one or two of them, so long as you don't stop me from reclaiming what is otherwise mine. The same deal I gave to them, effectively."

     "You can accept it or you can die." His eyes glow under the tent. "It's your choice. Choose wisely."

Damocles (7234) has posed:
The inner workings of magic in Gilgamesh's universe have been consuming a lot of Damocles's time the last few hours.  He's made a show of helping to look, using the rock and his own magical senses, however ever since a conversation with the King, Damocles's mind has been racing.  Collective knowledge.  Common sense of the world which can be manifested in objects. There's potential here.  He hasn't heard a whisper in his head since he arrived here, but he knows his patron would be well pleased with it.

The rain doesn't bother Damocles anyway, mostly because his barrier magics have been keeping him dry.  He's honestly more worried about flooding.  Places like this tend to be prone to it.  There hasn't been a flash flood yet, but if something happened it could slow them down a lot.

What could also slow them down is murder.  Screams of the dying carry over the driving rain, and Damocles sighs.  I mean, they were looking in the desert for lost magical artifacts, so a curse of some kind is just natural, if any of the movies he's watched are to be believed.  

"I hope it's a mummy.  Mummies never have to deal with massive rainstorms.  I bet the water isn't good for the bandages.  Plus it'll be funny watching it slosh around."

Oh right, the dying.  The rain made it too hard to tell exactly where the yelling was coming from, but thankfully, Damocles has a helpful tool for that.  He taps the stone twice, and thinks about the source of the screaming.  Then lets the glowy stone be his guide towards the confrontation.

Haguro has posed:
When the storm comes, Haguro puts off heading in as long as possible to help get the less rain-resistant supplies in and make sure that everyone's safely inside. She doesn't suspect anything at first when the key is mentioned, and she's hurrying over to check out when she notices that the discoverer of said key is a little.. Very dead.

She doesn't scream, even when another person loses his head. Something tells her that she should, that she should be horrified by what she's seeing, but she just looks annoyed. Turning slowly towards the likely culprit yelling about the water, she watches Jonathan's reaction to the strangely posing man while keeping her movements limited.

"You know Mister Joestar's name, but can we get yours as well, sir? It's only polite while you're making threats." As if to demonstrate, she draws her revolver from her inner vest pocket and aims it at the rubber suited man in one smooth motion, watching the weapon to see if it too gets torn apart from residual rainwater that might have snuck into her vest during the dig.

"My name is Haguro, Vice Admiral of the Luthan Fleet. You've threatened a Partner of the Concord, so please explain yourself if you do not want to die today." If the gun isn't sliced apart, she takes a pot shot at the mystery man's leg to see how he'll react!

Yuuki Kuran (518) has posed:
Blood. It's a rather notable scent to the noses of some. Frozen blood has an altogether different characteristic - speared through with veins of ice. If 'cold' has a scent, surely this is it.

But as a black-coated rubber suit man appears, with his rainbows, and his shouting...

Yuuki doesn't really have much more of a response than pointing.

"Are you some sort of... sexual deviant? A black coat over a rubber suit? I don't want to judge, but..."

Her voice falls. "I mean, wow... That's a lot."

Arcadia has posed:
Whichever way you want to explain it, it seems that Revali's idea has worked. Something still seems off about those clouds though. It's enough to keep her a bit on edge, and although she drifts back to the work site once there's no threat of lightning, she's keeping an eye on that storm. Guardian nature is kicking her impulsiveness to the backseat, and about the only thing that keeps her from speeding off to take a closer look.

Instead its several hours later and back at the camp. The rain has come, and the sphinx was using her wings to shelter some of the people and equipment while they find someplace to stow their gear until the storm passes.

Then there's screaming from another part of the camp. The rain adds an extra bit of ominous annoyance to her expression. "Hope for the best and expect the worse indeed," she mutters. Magitek visor shimmers as she tries to pinpoint where the screaming confrontation came from in the rain and gloom.

Revali (7222) has posed:
Revali's taken a break. The storm doesn't seem to have developed into a thunderstorm, so he's inside eating. When the screaming starts, he just as quickly makes an appearance, running outside of the food tent, heedless of the rain.

He's not sure what's going on - he heard a scream, and there's Jonathan, and-

- And time slows down. Not literally, not for everyone else. Just for Revali.

The seconds stretch into minutes, compressing by a factor of at least ten as Revali hyperfocuses. He's still moving at the same speed - though that's still an unreasonably fast speed - but he has more time to look, and to think.

Bodies. A man in black. Jonathan, helpless. Got it.

He reaches for his bow - and then pauses, using the luxury of the extra time to think. There's one intruder - just one?

Instead of drawing or firing, Revali crouches, and then launches on an updraft up into the air, already looking over the campsite on the way up. There can't be just one intruder against a camp full of elites...

Crys Gattz has posed:
Crys Gattz does what work she can until the call is given to come in from the rain, she's found the stone form Gil to be useful in at least keeping her what she roughly thinks is in the right direction. she's not had any major finds yet, the rains come and she's moving back to get some shielding not wanting to be out in the sand as the rains come down. Then comes the death screams of one of the workers. She will draw a photon blade and pistol from her storage gauntlet and will start to move in, however. It's time to do what Jojo hired her for.

Raindrops turn back to gas when they hit the blade making a sizzling sound as she moves forward her one good eye trying to focus in on just who is behind this.

She will come across rubber-man and levels her pistol at him, the Ruby Bullet Hums.

"So this is how you want to do it?"

If she's not had her own weapons taken out she'll fire a few shots trying to aid Haguro in hopefully at least focusing the man's attention on them.

Mikoto Shimizu (7002) has posed:
"Oh well...I am not sure what I thought would happen," As the rock points at Gilgamesh, and then Yuuki.  With a sigh, she reconsiders, but as time goes on the rain gets near and she goes towards her tent.  That was until MURDER TIME.

Running out, already in her magical girl garb and a jade longsword in hand, she moves towards where Jojo is already being held hostage by the man in a raincoat.  She looks at Yuuki who points out the deviancy and she nods once.  

"I think you might have the right of it, boss," she says, probably to be petulant to the man, but she holds up the sword over one shoulder and starts marching towards the man.  It's a slow walk as if giving Haguro's demands a time limit.  Because when she gets there, it's time to do what she does best.

Use Sword.

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
The man regards Gilgamesh cooly. Despite his boisterous shout, almost as if flipping a switch, he became as serene as a cloud on a sunny day. " .... "

It's impossible to tell what he's thinking behind that white mask. But, turning away From Jonathan, who is stuck unable to do anything but glare and try to thaw the ice with what little ripple he'd gathered beforehand, the man in black bows at the waist briefly in the same way one would imagine of a manservant. "I see. Those are acceptable terms."

As he raises back up, it seemed others were arriving already. A bird man, of all things, a supposed Vice Admiral, a woman who hilariously wound up being perfectly dressed for the heavy weather they were experiencing...

"Excuse me. " he says to Haguro. "Blackmore, that's my name. I'm just a butler, that's all."

That last part is said to Yuuki, as well, although it begged the question as to what sort of master would prefer their servant dress up in a gimp suit. Perhaps it was a question better left unanswered.

The gunshots bark and roar, but every attack thrown his way ... it passes through him. The man himself, his silhouette is wavering like fog!

Disappearing into rippling wisps, the water in the air seems to shudder before ...

Revali finds himself in danger of being skewered by by a mail breaker with a tapered tip. After all, the man, Blackmore noticed...

...That Revali was just as perceptive as he was. That was dangerous. He would not allow even a single person who could discover what his ability was to live, he resolved.

The air seems colder, for just a moment, as everyone else finds themselves being assailed by bullet-like ice drops.

Gilgamesh has posed:
     "Huhuhahahaha. Good. Then you know your place."

     Gilgamesh relaxes, producing another drink, as if to prove a point. It's fine peach wine and it smells fucking heavenly.

     "But if you cross me, remember, I will kill you without a second thought." Again, the glow of his eyes. "And you should know already that I am not one to be trifled with."

     "Well, dogs, carry on! Fight over my scraps!" The king kicks his legs up on the reclining throne and laughs. "OK Google, Your King Commands You - play me some music of the Fertile Crescent to amuse me!"

     The phone vibrates and then starts playing Walk Like An Egyptian.

Revali (7222) has posed:
"*SQUAWK!*"

That's the very undignified sound of a rito getting stabbed by a knife.

Time slows down again. (Again, not literally.)

He's getting attacked. Singled out? The falling rain is turning into deadly ice, so everyone is getting attacked, but it looks like only he is getting stabbed. Because he's taking to the sky? Because some other reason?

He doesn't have a definite answer. So: falling raindrops turning into deadly ice. And getting some protection for himself and others. That, he can handle.

The stab is throwing him off course, sending him out of the controlled upward spiral that his Gale usually takes him on. His current trajectory... is towards one of the tents. That's fine. He shifts his wings, course-correcting himself a bit, and then quickly draws his bow.

Two sets of tripleshots, cutting the ropes tying the tent to its stakes, and then his hyperfocus runs out. That's fine. He can do the rest of this in realtime.

The rito crashes in through the entrance of the tent, compounding the bad stab wound in his chest. He'll have to deal with that later. Right now, as soon as he can get a hand on the ground-

                                "REVALI'S GALE!"                                

- *inside* of the tent, the one that's no longer anchored to the ground.

The roof of it flies upwards, hopefully blocking some of the falling ice drops - and providing some cover for Revali as well!

Haguro has posed:
A Vice Admiral dressed like a tourist, no less.

"Mister Blackmore, then. Don't hold this against us, then." Amicable as ever, Haguro somehow manages to keep her cool as the fight begins in earnest. Noticing her bullets just passing right through him, she doesn't bother shooting further as she instead crouches down with one arm held up to protect the rest of her less-expendable body parts from the incoming hail of ice bullets.

That goes about as well as expected, of course. Bloody cuts and scratches cover Haguro's arm more than the rest of her body as she opts to withstand the shots directly instead of trying to weave through the uncountable projectiles. "Hn... That's quite the potent skill, Mister Blackmore." The shipgirl reloads her revolver as she does a quick scan of the sky to see where the rain-shooter is before taking another shot in his direction.

Her focus, however, is not on shooting Blackmore. It's on trying to figure out why he's singling out Revali of all people. Perhaps it's the birdman's penchant for flight? Haguro can't quite fly herself, but what she can do is look like she did!

The back of Haguro's boots and stockings glow blue briefly as she just disappears one moment, turning her thrusters on and her existence off, then appears several meters in the sky the next moment after boosting herself straight upwards. While she's in the sky and starting to descend again, she looks around rapidly between Blackmore and Revali, trying to see if Blackmore is leaving any tells behind or if Revali's doing something in particular that she can mimic to get the rubber suited man's attention!

Arcadia has posed:
Arcadia's visor picks up on the intruder, just in time to watch him disappear via wispy fog... that's squirming not unlike the stormclouds did when the lightning was drawn out of them

She knew there was still something off about the storm!

Heightened reflexes all too familiar with sudden mass projectile spam react, though it's not into immeadiate attack. Her tail whips to grab the workers she had been shielding from the rain and pulls them to the stand. "Get down!" Though at the same time she's throwing her hands up and out as her magitek weaponry engages.

"BLAZING CASCADE!" She fires off several balls of flame into the ice bullet hell, which spin rapidly to shoot off their flames in several spiraling arcs to reach farther and intercept as much of the frozen shower as possible. A few of the ice shots shatter against her armor and wings, but better her than the workers and equipment she's trying to protect.

Damn escort missions. Why are they always so shitty and annoying?

Mikoto Shimizu (7002) has posed:
The old man disappears, this causes Mikoto to jump back.  Because the moment he is gone he's going to attack!  Of course, from above!  She moves to spin her blade quickly, aiming to cut down as many of the shards as she can, but she focuses on the ones that would be fatal.  A few get by, causing streaks to form on her outfit and skin, drawing some blood.  

So he wants...no he's focusing on the bird?  This causes her to tilt her head slightly, before grinning.  Her body seems to be forming something out of magic, a jacket of sorts, with the symbol of Tanya's home on it.  A gem around her neck appears as she shoots upwards.  

Taking flight, she soars towards the old man, sword drawn as she attempts to slice through him and continue upwards.  This flight power packs a punch, and she's willing to use it to it's fullest.  

Touta Konoe has posed:
    Being given some done time for those few hours, Touta found himself simply staying in one of the tents, keeping to his own thoughts for the most part. He had found himself staring at the card again. A faded image in comparison to what it was before. Though just as before his thoughts get interrupted as the sounds of screams can be heard. The panic is actually enough to force Touta to get up quickly. An expression for once that shows on his face other than mopeyness...Desperation. He wanders out along with Jonathan to see the blood bath that had already started and well, he wasn't pleased.

    Then the guy had the audacity to even rain ice down on the group. While the others are likely going one way or another to avoid / impede the attack, the young man in black doesn't. In fact, He gets bludgeoned by ever bullet of ice that assails him. Though the wounds that were caused heal up just as fast when a build up of black miasma silently yet ominously accrues around the boy, whatever this aura was it clearly wasn't a stand, but it wasn't any less lethal than one as it began to fill in the wounds. Though just as quickly as that aura appears, it fades with a discontent look on the boy's face.

     "I don't know what your deal is, but off'ing people who couldn't even protect themselves, threatening Mr.Joestar...And then throwing things at my friends...Ya know, butlers shouldn't be throwing things. They should be picking them up..." At that point Touta pulls up his sword and starts messing with the dial, cranking it up higher and higher. He's seen the guy phase through those physical attacks like water, and frankly Touta doesn't care. Even as he messes with the dial it looks like Touta was sinking lower and lower into the sand before him. He's seen this guy phase through the previous attacks and he doesn't care. Unlike the others, he's not doing this to garner attention...He's making a statement.

    "One-hundred Thousand Fold."

    Touta would fling his blade, but not at the butler, but at the sand at his feet. In an instant a sand cloud would kick up, ground would shatter and the footing the butler was using would crumble before him likely not causing any true harm to him but showing that Dio wasn't the only sort of monster in this world to be afraid of.

    The young man puts his hands in his pockets as he starts non-chalantly walking towards the collapsed earth.

    "Sorry butler, I seemed to have dropped that sword...You wanna pick it up for me?"

    OST Change: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MtOpB5LlUA

Yuuki Kuran (518) has posed:
Yuuki Kuran, completely baffled, stares at 'Blackmore' and his extremely deviant-looking Stand. "Yes, but... that doesn't explain... Ok." She raises her hand at the wrist, fingers apprehensive. "I guess it does explain the choice in black coat, but not the..." She gestures vaguely at her face, miming a 'mask', and then down to circle her palm in the air before her chest.

Which is a general pantomime for 'and the rest of this situation'.

She doesn't really have much time to ask any more Really Uncomfortable Questions, because she is immediately shot with ice spikes! Well, shot *at* with them. Like a hailstorm against a metal roof, she's marked and cut but to more annoyance and cosmetic damage than apparent effect.

"Gilgamesh." She grumbles, annoyed, as she turns her head to his Golden Throne and his Golden Situation.

"I am not a dog." She huffs.

THAT'S WHAT SHE TOOK ANNOYANCE WITH?

Damocles (7234) has posed:
Small shards of ice smash like bullets into Damocles's barrier, casing ripples of energy across his form as he approaches the group.  Things here seem a little out of hand.  A guy just turned to fog?   The sky is attacking them?  Jonathan is stuck dynamic posing?  He feels like he needs to review someone's notes on what the heck happened.  He was away for like, 2 minutes!

"Okay, what the hell?" Damocles states incredulously as he walks confidently into the melee.  The bombardment of ice is a problem, but since he doesn't have an immediate solution for that, so he decides to focus on the other thing.  He doesn't know if that guy is an illusion or can just turn to fog.  Time to test a theory.

He raises his staff in Blackwell's direction, and focuses a surge of Warp energy, directing it at the old man as a clawing, saturating fog that bleeds into its target and soaks into their body, pooling in their muscles like a rot to drain away strength and speed. 

"Hey, slow down a minute, Butler.  What are you even here for?  Did you even try talking before you went all stabhappy on everybody?"

Crys Gattz has posed:
Crys Gattz shots hit the mark, or they would have. The problem is the target is just /gone/ she has some ideas about them and what they can do. She wonders is this entire storm the very guy they are dealing with? Blackmore? That's quite the name and now she's getting assailed by bullet-like ice drops. She has several hit, a few are deflected by her photon armour other get past digging in her injuring her and she looks up the sky calling out "RAFOIE!" Causing a burst of fire about her to consume the ice bullet raining down on her.

She now focuses on the stone she has trying to use it to pinpoint where that /man/ is. Here is hoping the stone might be able to pinpoint him.

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Drawing blood, Blackmore is forced off of Revali shortly as he divebombs into a tent. Stopping, the man seemingly stands on thin air .. no. It's the rain. He's standing on the rain itself, and takes several hops downwards, to safely reach the ground. But, before he can follow Revali into his temporary shelter, Touta intervenes.

The explosion of the ground throws the man dozens of feet into the air. " ... ?! .... such strength. More over, that recover ... excuse me."

Revali blasts into the sky, Haguro and Mikoto following suite. Try as he might to race after Revali, he's cut off at every turn. "Tch..!"

A long gash is torn into his side by Mikoto as he twists his body and thrusts at her with his weapon. The droplets of water spray outwards from the force and freeze instantly, becoming a lethal shotgun blasts at point blank range!

The blood flow on the wound she gave him ceased almost immediately...as that part of his body all but disappeared, like someone took an ice cream scoop out of his side.

Blackmore attempts to disappear again before the energy wave can strike, rippling, but ... his arm gets caught. " -- !?!?!?!?!?!?!?"

And just like the cut given to him by Mikoto, his arm disappears wholesale. Blackmore realized what was happening to the limb almost immediately and did something to make the whole thing disappear. Yet, despite his body being physical again, he was spilling not a single drop of blood. "It seems I'm at a disadvantage." the butler murmurs, before fading out. The stone, which had been pointing where he'd visibly been reacts strangely.

It can't seem to locate him. If it were a compass, it'd surely be spinning out of control.

And then, very abruptly, it pointed in two different directions at once.

Blackmore appeared underneath Revali as the rainfall in the immediate vicinity of the bird man changed directions. Rather than falling down, as normal, it moved upwards like a hail of machinegunfire coming from below.

But, the eagle eyed Elite might realize that he was missing his other arm.

And that was because his rapier wielding arm was now attempting to stab Damocles through the back of his head.

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
Rean hears the screams from the dig site, rushing out his tent with sword drawn. "What happened-" Rean asks before noticing the very stabbed corpse on the ground, An internally frozen Jojo, and the guy in the rubber suit. Oh no.

Rean raises his cloak to shield himself from the frozen rain. It gets torn to shreds in the process but that's fine. It does its job, mostly keeping him from getting flecetteed. A few still still made it through to his arms and back, bat at least he can still move.

All this ice gives him an idea, but he hesitates for a moment, unsure if it's worth also potentially burning everyone.

He's given the ok by though still on the ground with him, though and Rean nods, shifting his focus.

"ARCUS, Activate."  A ring or light surrounds Rean as the spell 'loads', and then shifts into a glowing  circle of heat on the ground, turning the ground and air around the group into a sauna and hopefully also melting any ice that passes through the area.

Revali (7222) has posed:
Time slows.

First thought: Revali is going to have a headache from doing this so much in such a short span.

Second thought: Oh hey Damocles is getting stabbed in the back of the head while the rest of the guy is beneath him. Neat. Revali relays that information.

Third thought: oh shit evade, evade, evade

Back in real-time, Revali barrel-rolls to the side, desperately trying to get out of the way of the ice bullets that are flying upwards at him. The archer needs more of an opening to launch his attack, and right now he's not getting it!

Damocles (7234) has posed:
Damocles's tracking stone was still set to watching Blackmore, and the flicker of light does catch his attention, as does the feeling of Warp magic moving around him.  This gives him a split-second warning in which he turns his head, hearing the gentle whistle of air and ice being parted by steel.  He twists his head as the rapier smashes through his barrier spell, catches him just under his right cheekbone, and tears a gash though his face stretching from underneath the corner of his eye, all the way to just below the back of his ear.

The attack also knocks his hood back, revealing his face, which looks more than a little angry about the situation.  "Son of an OW.  Okay, I see how this is." 

Damocles jumps back, leaping a good 10 yards to the side and slams his staff into the ground, creating a small shockwave around himself.  "Okay Blackwell...Did you not like magic?  Well maybe you just don't know it well enough yet.  Here, let me give you a nice personal introduction!"

Damocles dramatically steps forward, swinging his staff behind him and thrusting a hand out towards Blackmore.  As he does, Warp energy surges through him and is shaped as tendrils of raw emotion that reach out for Blackmore.  In this case, that emotion is pure, unrestrained fear.  Not of anything in particular, but raw, primal terror in its purest form.

Haguro has posed:
Success! Sort of. If nothing else, the fact that Blackmore's having some trouble reaching Revali gives Haguro just a bit more information about whatever it is his power is, and it starts piecing together once the Rito spells it out for everyone.

<<Revali says, "He can seperate his body parts and send them places!">>

But what does that mean? To Haguro, it doesn't mean quite as much as seeing Blackmore stepping on the rain drops to get to the ground safely. Even if she can't track his movements right away, she does have something more explicit to target the next time he reappears!

But where is he going? That's a question for the magic rock Gilgamesh gave her and the rest of the group earlier as she taps it twice and thinks about Blackmore's right leg. Once she gets a hit, Haguro turns the thrusters back on and teleports once more, disappearing and reappearing...

... Underneath Blackmore?! She's not shooting again this time, though, as she keeps her hands free to try grabbing his right leg directly. "I've got you now, Blackmore... You won't be able to move so easily like this!" Should she get a good hold on it, she starts twisting and wrenching at it, aiming to break and sprain it rather quickly in a gambit to limit his rain-stepping technique!

Mikoto Shimizu (7002) has posed:
"You damn right you are at a disadvantage old man, I suggest giving up and comi-" The sword dives for her, and her blade moves to aim to come up from under the blade and send it off course.  However, the second attack which was likely meant to be the real attack flies at her like a shotgun.  It blasts her back, sending her flying to give the butler time to move.  

Her chest looking pretty rough starts to heal, she snaps back midair and looks around.  He's gone!  However, she assumes that he'll go after Revali again.  Blood starts dripping down her chest, causing her to wince in pain.  She's going to need time to heal, but she doesn't have time.

She charges towards Revali, going full force as she thrusts her blade forward.  A magical symbol appears as various birds appear around her.  They as a group come flying in, the birds aim to try and peck and bite at this piece of the man, while the larger birds of prey aim to make claw strikes as they dive him.  

Mikoto, on the other hand, taps into the power of Tanya's unit, as her sword starts to glow with a yellow light.  She charges, aiming to try and split the man again, turning around she attempts to engage him in melee, trying to lock him down.  Unlike before she knows about the rain, and she has a plan for THAT, thanks to Tanya.

Arcadia has posed:
That dispersed most of the icy projectiles around her, but with more people taking into the air Arcadia can't keep pelting out saturation attacks hither and yon. Tch, sometimes working with a group was a little annoying. Arcadia will just have to adjust.

But someone points out the enemy can teleport, and in seperate parts. That is something she can help with.

The sphinx spreads out her fingers again. "Vorpal Missiles!" Multiple sparks of magic erupt from her fingertips and, being one of her equivilents to the classic 'Magic Missile', warp their pathes through the air to try and home in on Blackmore. Whichever part of him is closest for them to home in on. Their name comes from being so fast they're extremely hard to see in-flight, adding to their difficulty in being evaded.

Well Revali might see them coming in with his time dilating focus. But they're not targetted at him anyways.

Touta Konoe has posed:
    Rean had a plan, and as he explained his approach and his doubts hearing what he had to offer Touta could at least reassure him that he wouldn't have to worry about the others. So as the young man cast his spell, letting out a wave of heat inorder to deal with the ice over a wide range, Touta's bringing out his hoop like he had done hours earlier as he whips up a frenzy of air. His idea was simple, using Revolution he'd try to manipulate the air currents to try and deal with the heat. focusing it more in a more condensed area rather than have it all expand at once. This'd actually more than likely slow down how much ice Rean was melting over a wide area but increase the how fast the ice was melting that ended up being caught up in those redirected air currents where his heat was being focused. As for the ground...Can't do much about that except hope the air currents mitigate it a bit and hope everyone's got shoes on. Besides....Sands already hot obviously!

Gilgamesh has posed:
     "Well obviously I wasn't talking to you!" Gilgamesh says at Yuuki. "Why would I say something like that to you?"

     "But I can't exactly go, 'mongrels, but not Yuuki, she's not a mongrel.' The mongrels know who I'm talking to!"

     Gilgamesh waves his hand idly, then offers her space under the pavillion. "Dogs instinctively know their owners' voices, after all. They know when they're being called and referred to. If I call these dogs *mongrels*, they instinctively twitch, irritably, at hearing their master call them such. They growl, because they aren't housebroken, and they haven't been properly beaten."

     He leans back. "I wouldn't lump you in with such a thing as a matter of course."

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
    "You....you're smarter than you look..."

His voice is low and calm as he speaks to Haguro, but there's frustration boiling underneath. Not at her, though. Not at all. Rather ... he gave off the distinct impression that he was furious with himself, for some reason. "But."

    "Y o u s h o u l d n ' t h a v e d o n e t h a t."

The pain in his leg alleviates as Haguro may begin to realize the core tenant behind his power. After all, rather than a man's leg, she's simply holding a long puddle of water reflecting the image of what had been there.

The birds Mikoto sends are all exterminated in an instant as he freezes the water in the air and holds them there, just like he'd done to Jonathan. Only, unlike the giant englishman, the familiars didn't stop moving. And so, they were all ripped to bits.

Suicide By Raindrop is what he'd taken to calling that particular application of his Stand. Attacks that seek him out come his way. But, at the last second, Blackmore disappears...no. Haguro can feel it.

He just changes places with her. It's too late for any of those attacks to be redirected, though, Mikoto might be able to pull herself back at the last second as he fades out entirely, changing his whole self into living liquid that can exist in any state.

From that perspective, the reactions of the stones made perfect sense. Finding him, a mass of water that could take any form in the rain, in a storm like this? It was a fool's errand.

Worse yet, the storm ... changes, somehow, as if in response to the tactics employed by Rean and Touta. Blackmore, internally, felt his panic stifle. He felt bad that he couldn't accomplish this alone, but ultimately, that was fine. It's why he had help, after all.

The rain, which besides his manipulation had been largely normal rainfall, no longer was such. It didn't change into vapor and steam..in other words, it wouldn't evaporate under heat any longer.

The Warp Energy used by Damocles was dangerous. While he hesitated to leave Revali alone, he couldn't make even a single mistake with the magician. Transporting his leg as Damocles raised his staff, the disembodied limb appears underneath him and gives him a swift kick in the chin. Blackmore himself appeared directly infront of him after that, seemingly growing in a flash out of the leg so that he could grab onto the staff and attempt to wrench it from him. "I won't allow it!"

Crys Gattz has posed:
Crys Gattz gets one heck of a response to her plan to try and find Blackmore is everywhere almost. The stone is doing a version of a compass spinning wildly. She pauses for a moment as it hits her he's kind of everywhere or is able to be everywhere.

"What the Falz?"

This is going to have to make him think outside the box if she's going to find something if he can be everywhere some sort of saturation attack?

Well it's the best shot she has to use some techs she's more for melee combat and knows this very well. She will launch several fireballs trying to pin Blackmore in a bit, for those better suited to such a takedown.

"Sorry sir, I have a job to do here. Nothing personal!"

She lets several more Foie blasts rip at him.

Damocles (7234) has posed:
Lured into his reckless offensive stance, Damocles had left himself wide open for the strike to the face, and with the barrier around his head still weakened from the earlier stab, the kick is able to break through his shields again, catching him under the chin and sending the big man staggering back a bit. 

Not only does this disrupt his terror spell, the weaving tendrils of magic evaporating into fog in the storm, but it also diverts his attention just enough that the Eye of Tzeentch, his personal staff, is wrenched from his hand before he can regain his balance. 

Damocles drops into a combative stance as he's suddenly in close range with the man, who is armed with his force staff.  "You've got some nice tricks," Damocles admits evenly, before adding wryly, "So where are you?  The 'real you', I mean." 

Without waiting for an answer, Damocles steps forward and throws a simple, low punch with all his strength at Blackmore.  Damocles doesn't have any real training in hand-to-hand fighting, but he does have considerable strength and speed, all of which he's putting into the punch.

Meanwhile, a strange thing would happen when Blackmore takes possession of the staff.  Very lightly, just past the edge of his hearing, he would start to hear a gentle whispering, as if someone very close to him were trying to tell him a very important secret, but he just couldn't *quite* make it out.

Yuuki Kuran (518) has posed:
So the party is having an extraordinary (nay, `Bizarre`) time fighting this enemy Stand-user and his fetish-y Stand - which actually has fantastically unique powers - but Yuuki and Gilgamesh are having a Discussion.

"Well, now, that's not entirely correct. A dog knows its own name, but we are not dogs, are we? And when someone has the audacity - the temerity, if I'm thinking of the right word - to hurl insults in your direction, sometimes it's worthwhile to answer to that! Sometimes dispelling the fog, and finding clarity, is good. Also..."

A rather jet-black 'wolf' without discernable eyes or most other features - blackness in the shape or silhouette of a fuzzy wolf - pads around Gilgamesh's throne.

"... Audacious tongues can say some foolish things in haste, can't they?" Yuuki grins, before raising her chalice of the King's liquor. "I'll accept your grace in advance, Gilgamesh, for sharing your liquor."

In a motion, she lightly tips Johnathan Joestar's chin up and pours some of the sun-warmed ambrosia Gilgamesh had shared with her down his throat. "Drink up, Johnathan. I have need of your excellence - this should clear that blockage in your throat."

Mikoto Shimizu (7002) has posed:
Mikoto proceeds to get styled on.

The birds fall, completely frozen, but that's something she can deal with.  As she swings, however, he fades and puts Haguro in the path.  She pulls her swing upwards, trying to send it off course and at the last second, just hairs from Haguro the blade stops.  

Breathing heavily, and still bleeding she stares at the ship girl.  There was a little bit of fear there.  Fear that she couldn't quash because of what just happened.  Her hands shaking, she turns away and looks for that old man again.  Now she's angry!

Well no, she's freaked out that she almost cut Haguro in half.  She's using anger to cover it up.  Between the storm and her own being put off by what just happens, she can't see where the old man even went.

Revali (7222) has posed:
Revali needs a moment.

Revali gets his moment. He finds shelter from the rain, a moment to catch his breath, a moment to assess his various wounds and make sure he's not going to bleed out and die right then and there...

While others are fighting, he recovers, as best as he's able.

And then he observes. He draws his bow - at normal speed, saving his hyperfocus for when it'll be more useful - and then knocks an arrow, and waits, and watches.

He takes note of the pattern of swapping, of who Blackmore targets and when...

His grip tightens on his drawn bowstring.

Time slows, at least inside Revali's head.

He makes his guess, and he takes his shot, not at where Blackmore appears, but where Revali guesses he's going to be next.

The oddly shaped arrow has a bulb at the end, not a point... but it's no less aerodynamic. However, when it lands, it doesn't cut - it explodes.

It doesn't matter if it's raining. Bomb arrows will go off reliably even underwater.

Haguro has posed:
That ominous warning goes unheeded by Haguro since... Well. Would anyone really be expected to actually heed an opponent's warning not to do something if they thought they were getting the upper hand?

Of course not. That's why she's caught completely off guard when he leg becomes water becomes a reflection becomes her getting slashed and blasted in short sequence. She's not expecting either of those attacks to come where they're from, either, although she has enough sense to brace for impact without much mobility in the air to actually evade any of it.

At least it's not loud at the same time. Getting shot in the back by vorpal missiles draws a pained yell from the shipgirl, and she twists arund to land in a slump to give herself a chance to recover as her back sizzles with the searing magic pain coursing through her back. Arcadia doesn't get any dirty looks, at least, and Mikoto gets a slow thumbs up from Haguro in acknowledgment of not cutting her up, but she's biding her time as she looks for his next spot right away instead of dwelling on what happened.

Back to the rock. Another two taps, another long thought about Blackmore's left leg, and Haguro's chasing off after that marker this time! Instead of trying to grab it directly, though, she opts for a different approach if she finds it: This time around, she opens up her backpack to try and wrap it around his leg to trap it before thrashing around with that leg.

She started getting to a good diea, at least. Maybe it'll work out fine and not get her shot up again!

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
With Touta's help, Rean's plan works...for a moment. The rain starts acting up, not even getting stopped by the heat, and just continuing to pour down. Rean breaks off his casting, and then places his sword back in its sheath. He focuses again, opening his senses to see if he can track all the different pieces of Blackmore...though if there is someone else out there with the butler, they might just get caught in Rean's radar. His focus is on the butler, though, and once he tracks a piece that's close enough, he'll quickly unsheath his sword, sending an arc shaped wave in his direction.

Gilgamesh has posed:
     There's a flicker of suppressed annoyance across Gilgamesh's face for a brief moment. It's just there for a moment as he tilts his head. "Hmph. Fine. I accept that that's true. It doesn't make me think any higher of them, but I accept that it's true that I sometimes must crush a dog's barking for fun, and so that conclusion isn't an entirely acceptable one."

     The black wolf gets an automatic sort of hold-out-and-scritch unless it directly rejects the King. Gilgamesh likes wild animals. He likes them a lot more than he likes most people. There's nothing 'petlike' about his manner - simply the recognition that animals, like humans, like demigods, like to be praised and rewarded.

     "Priscilla has been trying to get me to recognize these as people, too," he says, somewhat irritably. "It's..."

     "Unpleasant."

     "All the rows and rows and rows of interchangeable dogs barking the same thing day in and day out. Most of them never learn. The few that do are worth some scattered applause. The ones that boldly challenge are worth remembering." He waves his free hand. "But most of them are just contemptible."

     He stares up at the pavillion. "Even so, she tries, she hopes, she believes."

     His fingers go to the side of his head, like he has a headache. "I would like very much to believe. It tasks me still, to look at the world. Perhaps one day."

     "Still. The whole of the Multiverse knows that I don't insult those whose names I can remember, Yuuki Kuran. I would appreciate not being read as if I do."

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
"Likewise. You have a truly terrifying power ... if I were any less aware, I'd have already ... hm?"

Almost like a buzzing in the back of his head, Blackmore frowns. But he has no time to ruminate on the whispering that was ruining his focus, he had to react, now. Swishing his stolen staff to send a spray of water droplets towards the fireballs, he converted them into ice. But, the same phenomenon like with Rean and Touta, it didn't dissipate as the laws of physics dictated. It punched through the flame and put it out!

Crys herslef is now faced with a shotgun volley of ice bullets.

In the meantime, a kind of nectar is poured down Jonathan's throat. Sweat and rainwater trickled down his face in equal measure, but .. sure enough, the blockage in his throat quickly begins to disappear! The ice, and the damage it had been causing disappeared in an instant and allowed him to breath. "Koooooooh...."

He filled himself up with ripple. His vital energy coursed through his blood stream and created waves of Hamon aura to begin wisping from his body. "Amazing! That liquid...somehow, it was able to completely get rid of that ice in my gullet. That Stand power...yes, it has to be what it is. It's overwhelming, but ... there's a trick to it. I'm positive, having been able to observe everything thus far. It's not just one enemy stand, but two!"

    "What's your plan, Miss Kuran? I'll do what I can!"

Blackmore, in the meantime, makes to disappear, the staff changing into water with him as he moves ...and is promptly shot by Revali.

    "Uwoooh!"

Crying out in pain as he's sent to the ground, bouncing, and with several new burns and a broken bones, he gasps. "That bird-man ... he's figured it out! He doesn't understand how my ability works, but he must have realized how I've been prioritizing my targets!"

With horror under his mask at his own failure, Blackmore grinds his teeth, thinking to himself. 'He realized that I'm targeting those closest to figuring out my ability, and forming countermeasures against it! Now that he's proven to himself he can predict my movement, I can't follow that pattern anymore .. if I do, he'll blow me to smithereens! Awooo....you bastard! How could this Blackmore be so foolish...I'll never forgive myself, and neither will my Master!'

The whispering was annoying him. And so frazzled he was, he didn't notice that Jonathan was no longer trapped as he had counted on.

Rean, in the meantime, does detect someone. Someone close by, in fact, someone very nearby!

There were many workers here. But there was an aura of 'offness' around one particular group ... one of the six terrified looking men huddled in a makeshift shelter of pots, pans, and tin sheets didn't belong. That was what Rean's carefully trained intuition told him.

Arcadia has posed:
Sorry Haguro. Placement swapping was not a teleportation she anticiapted!

It's becoming clear that this unnatural rain was a bigger part of the issue. It's being controlled... Or is part of something in a more literal sense? Not just being used to attack, but to directly aid what Blackmore is doing.

The patterns were broader than the attack sequences she'd dealt with over the years, but on the wider scale they are still there.

Arcadia thinks hard for a moment... and remembers how the stormclouds reacted when Revali shot the lightning out of them. Like they were something more intimate than just a weather formation.

"Been focusing on the wrong target." She scolds herself, and deploys several of her magitek bits and scatters them across the worksite. Though rather than make any direct attacks they orient themselves vertically and start to spin, not unlike tops, as they channel her wind magic. It doesn't take long for them to form small but powerful vortices. But they're still not being directed on Blackmore.

Instead Arcadia directs them at the actual storm overhead, attempting to use her minature cyclones to weaken the unnatural storm and how it's dispersed itself over the area. Maybe if she can break up even part of it she can reduce how effectively it is used to keep an upper hand over them.

Revali (7222) has posed:
Revali nods to himself, satisfied.

"Hah!" he calls in response to Blackmore's monologue. "Whatever carefully laid plans you made here - you clearly did not count on the Champion of the Rito being here! Remember that for next time - Legendary Archer, Revali, has foiled your plot!"

And then with that boast delivered, he turns and runs, making his way through the tents again. That shot undoubtedly gave away his position, and he's increasingly not in the best of shape. The mental muscles he uses to hyperfocus need more time to recover than he's been giving them between uses, and he has the mother of all headaches coming on.

Besides, if Blackmore's looking for him, that's less time he's spending focusing on the others...

Damocles (7234) has posed:
Damocles looks in shock as Blackmore dissolves to water along with the Eye of Tzeentch.  He had assumed that kind of thing would be impossible, and how that worked makes his mind race.  He doesn't have time to work out how that worked, though.

Because that son of a bitch just took his staff.

Alright.  Let's work this out.  He knows that guy teleports around.  Damocles also teleports around.  And having his staff does give Damocles one major advantage:  The Eye of Tzeentch positively *sings* with magical power.

Once again, Damocles charges himself with Warp energy.  He doesn't immediately use it however, instead charging himself with energy.  His body crackles with power, arcs of violet energy shooting from his armor and his eyes, even without his hood up, can be seen glowing more and more ominously with violet power.  Damocles doesn't do anything with it right away, though.  He channels it.  And he waits. 

Inside his head, he feels for the staff. He can sense magical energy, the energy of his own universe most of all.  He reckons that when Blackmore teleports, he needs at least a moment to reorientation himself before he can teleport again.  

So he waits.  He waits for that moment, waiting for Blackmore teleport, and using his sense of magic to follow where his staff appears.  And if that happens, he launches that energy.  Blackmore seemed distressed by the raw energy of Damocles's universe before, so he channels it as thus:  A pillar of violet flame, pure Warpfire, to engulf Blackmore.  Typically Blackmore has been appearing next to a target, so he tries to keep the pillar tight, so as not to harm the person he teleports near, and to launch it off fast, before that person can counter-attack.

Mikoto Shimizu (7002) has posed:
Mikoto comes down like a rocket towards Blackmore.  A shadow over her face, revealing only but the glowing green eyes of the Magical Girl as she focuses on nothing but this man.  Nearly hurt her friend, even if Haguro let it slide off, it was akin to stealing from her.  Haguro was /her/ friend, and he endangered that.

If she manages to land on him, she repeatedly slashes at him, with enough force that the sand splits for a few feet passed each swing.  Even if he disappears she watches.

Aiming to doggedly pursue him so that he has no choice but to keep moving.  Maybe she won't hit him, but she can at least try and delay him so that others who can, can lay the blows needed on him.

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
His senses don't help that much with targeting Blackmore it seems, but...

One of these people doesn't belong.

Rean turns to look at the group of huddled archaeologists, and runs over, sword still drawn.  

"Alright. Which one of you is responsible for the rain?" Rean says, glaring down the entire group.

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
    "W..what? What are you talking about?!" one of them shrieks, their voice high pitched. It's difficult to tell their gender. Shivering, the person holds their tin sheet to their chest, recoiling from Rean in panic. The rest of the group murmurs amongst themselves, shaken as well.

Rean's accusation is dead on the money, however. One of them is certainly the enemy. But with them shuffling back and bunched up like that it was hard to tell. It's not as if they were intentionally hiding someone, rather ...

It's just that whoever it was happened to be good at blending in, maybe. That didn't seem right either, though.

Yuuki Kuran (518) has posed:
"Johnathan-!" Yuuki gasps as the Gentleman Adventurer revives. "You've some powerful technique there! I had heard about it, but to be present is something entirely different!"

For a moment, she's like a very interested teenager, big !-filled eyes and starry expressions as she cna practically 'taste' the life energy the Ripple fills Johnathan with. As he asks for her plan, though, she nods firmly and with a deep determination. "Yes. I'd like you to show us the power of a deductive mind like yourself. Since Revali --" The flying archer issuing his taunts and whoops loudly in the campgrounds. "-- is certain to draw their attention, your mission is to make sure the one that appears to attack him is thwarted! He has some special skill with the bow that is sure to be able to defeat that Stand User. Then, the others can converge on destroying the other."

Yuuki winks, as she daps Johnathan on the bicep with her parasol-holding fist. "Plus, it'll give you a moment to show off your power for the King of Heroes. Wouldn't it be a good relationship to curry? A skilled explorer, and a man who knows about all the treasures? I'll go make your introduction."

She leaves, then, just going back to Gilgamesh's throne and pacing about it to lean against the side, watching things occur.

The black wolf-shape is highly receptive to scritches, easily taking to more vigorous pats like an archtypical canine, though Gilgamesh's restraint means the full rigamarole isn't engaged in.

"Ah, Gilgamesh, that's very like Priscilla. And more credit for you, to try. I think that's the most attractive thing about some people. The chemistry between hearts, and souls."

Yuuki gains a half-lidded look, as she gazes from her leaning spot against the King's chair. "Gilgamesh." Yuuki begins, her hair waving damply in the stormy conditons. "I don't hold a grain of sand in contempt for being a grain of sand. Even if it's annoying, ground against my skin, it's just a grain of sand. It isn't annoying by its nature: it's just annoying because it is temporarily in my presence. It's easy to forget, when it's gone. But even that can be pleasant - getting your toes and wiggling them in the stuff's fun though, isn't it? It's a good feeling, and one I had thought to try here, before this..."

A gesture towards The Situation. "... all happened. And the rain. Now it'll be like putty." Harrumphs the girl with her sunglasses on at night, a petulant 'pfffbt' at the whole madhouse.

"Admire the seashells, because they could become beautiful bits of color, gorgeous natural things, or just be ground into more sand. That's what I think."

A light blush roses her cheeks as she laughs, bringing her fist to her lips. "Sorry. Zero took me to the beach a few weeks ago. It was very memorable."

Crys Gattz has posed:
Crys Gattz has earned herself an ice shotgun to the chest while her photon armour is able to take a lot out of it? It can't stop the entire force of the impact and Crys is knocked off her feet for one She's also torn up and bleeding from various points on her torso where the ice shards got through her armour and made short work of breaching her clothing and thus her body under it.

She's battered and bloody already, she's stubbornly hanging on she takes a cue from Damocles. While he says nothing he's clearly prepping a spell and likely holding it till Blackmore pops back in. Or that's what she's thinking.

She tracks where Blackmore is going to pop out next and she will add to Damocles's own assault but rather than fire she's going to hit him with lighting as she holds her own spell until he pops in once more.

Haguro has posed:
Haguro grits her teeth as her backpack ploy didn't get her anywhere, but she doesn't let it get her down as Blackmore retreats again. It's still progress! It takes her a while to catch on that one of the archaeologists is a mole for Blackmore, but that becomes more obvious when Rean outright confronts them.

Two and two get put together, and she shifts gears from pursuing Blackmore to sorting out which one of the six archeologists is the culprit. Joining him besides the archeologists, the burnt and bloodied tourist with a revolver approaches the group with a thoroughly done expression on her face.

"We don't have time for a full investigation, so we'll skip to the important part." She holds that blase expression with only moderate difficulty as she levels that gun at the group, firing two shots dangerously close to their heads to see if that gets any of the archaeologists to reveal themselves or behave particularly bravely.

The brave ones get left alone. If the culprit reveals themself, her work is done and all that's left is unloading the rest of her revolver into their limbs! If not, the rest of the archaeologists get aimed shots at the ankles. She's banking on /something/ happening if she has to go that far!

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Several of them scream, the androgynous looking one faints, even. But one doesn't react like he's supposed to. Rather, he reacts too late, mimicing the scream of the man beside him. "..."

Naturally, he's singled out as soon as this is recognized. His entire demeanor shifts...no, its more accurate to say that his whole body shifts along with it as he pulls his shirt off. He'd been the same worker who'd approached Damocles before, but now ... his dull, bluish gray hair hung down unrestrained and his broad, defined chest and abdominals exposed with tattoos of various sea creatures. Like starfish, crabs, and dolphins. " ... so I've been had. Ugh. I want to blame Blackmore, but ... the reality is that Joestar just came too prepared. Fate must have conspired against us today, how awful."

His voice is dead and devoid of anything. Any feeling at all. And Rean ... Rean doesn't feel anything from him. That was the aberration he'd noticed.

A 'void' in his perimeter. "My name is Mariner, and now that I've been discovered .... how will you approach me? Are you within my effective range yet? Just what abilities do I have, anyway?"

"Even if you riddle me full of holes, it might be the last mistake you ever make."

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Nodding, Jonathan gives a small smile. "You flatter me. Very well, I'll leave sorting out the tresspasor to the others and make my way to Revali. After all, the reason he made sure to disable me first is because ... "

    "The rain benefits me, too."

Jonathan quickly jogs off after Revali. The rainstorm was practically a monsoon, now, so it was getting dangerous for anyone to take to the air.

Bringing the staff up, Blackmore uses it to block Makoto's furious onslaught. Blood gushes out of his side...the wound she gave him earlier re-appeared! "Gh..!"

He winds up dropping the staff as he tries to maneouver around her to take it back, only for his instinct to roar at him. "... !"

Pulling back at the last second, Blackmore raises his decrepit, rotting left arm which had returned to him. It took a terrible fate for him once more and was caught in the blast of Warpfire!

Thinking quickly, Blackmore withdraw his rapier and with a swift motion, he slashed off his own arm at the bicep. "N......ngaaaah! It huuuuurts!"

He couldn't help but cry miserably in a panic, before discarding even his rapier. With his quick wit, he managed to save himself from being fried to a crisp by the lightning blast by tossing his weapon in its path, left stuck in the ground, the rapier acted as a lightning rod to suck the electrical attack in while Blackmore fled.

His target was obvious. Revali, in his haste, steps into a muddy puddle of sand as he retreats for a new position.

It's from this puddle that he appears, the ice in front of Revali freezing and holding in the air, effectively trapping him. If he kept going, he was going to put himself through a blender, after all.

But, Blackmore couldn't help but feel as though he forgot something critical. "Hmph. Champion of the Rito was it ... I see. Yes, I'll grant you this. You bested me. But I will erase that stain on my reputation by killing you right here!"

    "Kooooh..."

'Wait! Jonathan Joestar...where is he?! Wasn't he stuck by that golden man?! ---- !!!!!'

        "TURQOUISE BLUE OVERDRIVE!"

The water evaporates in a 10 meter radius entirely, turning into motes of bright blue Hamon particles as Jonathan launches a sparkling blast at Blackmore, sending him flying in a tailspin from the revolutionary properties of his Hamon. Jonathan had gone easy with the amount of Hamon he pumped into the man, having not wanted to stop his heart ... but.

Even if it was just momentarily, he'd sucked up the rain. It would take several more seconds for the monsoon to resume in that small circle of now clear air he made.

And as a result, Blackmore could not activate his stand, exposed. "Not good..!"

Haguro has posed:
And now it's done to one! Haguro reloads her weapon calmly as Mariner reveals himself, It's at that point she's not quite sure how to approach the mystery man safely.

Perhaps it's time to try something she's seen more confident and smarter people do: Bluff her ass off. When Mariner throws out those questions and issues those warnings, Haguro doesn't flinch or show concern. Instead, she sighs, then starts approaching him casually with her revolver tucked back into her vest, an empty water bottle in her hand, and the other hand twirling that sunhat idly.

"Mister Mariner, you're trying too hard to be cryptic about nothing. If you wanted to leave something to imagination, you could have stopped three sentences ago without giving yourself away." As she walks, her hat falls through her hand to the ground, and she doesn't bother picking it back up as she keeps approaching Mariner. Unless he physically stops her from doing so, she just walks right past him and tosses the water bottle into her hat.

Hopefully, that'll distract Mariner enough for Rean to figure something out before Haguro gets stabbed in the back or something!

Mikoto Shimizu (7002) has posed:
Mikoto does not stop, even when she has the upper hand.  Though when she swings, he moves once more.  She pauses, looking around trying to find that man again.  She wasn't done with him, not by a long shot.  Even the failed attempt to swap with her doesn't seem to phase her.  Right now she wants to hurt this man.

Finally, she turns to notice Blackmore completely exposed.  Jojo creating an area of clear weather.  Which gives her an opportunity.  She leaps, the flight pack borrowed from Tanya giving her some height before she comes down like a rock.

Her leg aiming to land on his chest, while her sword aiming to embed itself into his remaining shoulder.  She doesn't kill him, not yet, because he might have information.  Her head turns towards Yuuki as if to ask if they even need him alive.  

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Mariner's face is totally dead and emotionless. His tone belies nothing. But even so, he doesn't move. Not an inch. It's strange. As long as Haguro doesn't do anything to him, he's content to just stand there, staring at them.

Of course, it becomes immediately apparent why. 'Blackmore, you idiot.' he thinks, dully.

Because without the rain from Mariner's Ocean Man ... Blackmore's Catch The Rainbow could not activate.

The tattooed assassin who had merely been born 'wrong' could only hope that these two didn't catch on.

Revali (7222) has posed:
A puddle! No!

Revali stops dead in his tracks. He saw what happened to those other birds.

He doesn't pay attention to what the man's saying, trying desperately to think of a way out of this. Is there a way without moving? He can't- wait, Jonathan-

And suddenly Revali is free, and the target is right in front of him.

Hyperfocus.
Nock arrow.
Draw back.
Aim. Release.
Repeat.
Repeat.
Repeat.

The Rito Champion collapses, both his stamina and his quiver spent. But a dozen arrows, three each for each of Blackmore's limbs, should be enough, right?

Damocles (7234) has posed:
Damocles takes a heavy breath and wipes some sweat from his forehead.  It takes a lot to tire him, but trying to contain Warp energy like that for any amount of time is a massive strain on the body, and something he would never normally recommend.  He'd been annoyed though.

He sees his staff get dropped, and reaches a hand out towards it immediately.  Called by an unspoken spell, his staff leaps from the ground into the air, and flies with startling speed towards him.  He catches it easily in the air, swings it around a couple times, and nods, satisfied.  Fortunately for most people, Blackmore didn't understand the true powers the staff contains, or that could have been a lot worse. 

Still, Damocles takes the moment to recover.  He channels energy slowly through the staff to repair his broken barrier spell, renewing his shields to full strength, and drags a finger slowly over the gash on his face, which begins to visibly mend itself under his touch.  Both of those done, he starts slowly strolling towards where Blackmore and Joestar are faced off.  Given that guy's situation, he only has two options available to him.  Surrender or trump card.

Damocles gets close, but not too close, so he can help counter if the guy goes for the second option.

Yuuki Kuran (518) has posed:
Yuuki picks up her gaze. "What? No, they attacked us without even issuing challenge, do whatever you want." She answers Mikoto. "Johnathan can decide - it's his dig. I'm just helping!"

Crys Gattz has posed:
Blackmore keeps going, though it's clear they have him having to focus on dealing with their attacks than attacking back, finally, Jojo is back in the game, and he gives them an opening. An opening that will give them a brief moment to attack. She stops with the magic and does what she does best charge Blackmore timing it to follow on the trial of Revail's arrow barrage, she fires a few energy shots from her Ruby Bullet as she goes close to melee range and get in a slash or two with her photon sabre before she'll break off backflipping away to get out of the line of fire, of everyone else.

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
Rean flinches a bit at Haguro's warning shots, but she was right, they didn't have time for this. Besides, it worked, revealing the man's ruse right away...and Rean quickly realized WHY this corner felt weird.  

There was /nothing/ in this man. Nothing to sense, just emptiness in his essence. He doesn't even move when Haguro starts to approach him.

Rean crouches low, and then rushes forwards, trying to knock this 'Mariner' off his feet and pin him to the ground.

Arcadia has posed:
Whatever technique Jonathan did leaves Blackmore high and dry, almost literally. There is no time to question it, just take advantange of situation. Oppritunity knocks, and Arcadia kicks the door down.

Fortunately since she's using her attack bits she can work around other people moving in on the man. She directs the bits towards Blackmore while compressing the air streams flowing from them as tightly as possible and releasing. The result is something akind to a half dozen compressed air cannons firing at once, producing enough concussive force to hopefully knock the man down while he's vulnerable.

Honestly she'd agree with some of the other people, but it's JoJo's show, if he wants the man to question, she'll accomidate as long as it doesn't bring a greater risk.

So for now she's just using the spells that make people fall down. Because high powered wind.

Gilgamesh has posed:
     Gilgamesh actually blushes a little.

     It's a very rare sight. Normally, he is a very imperious person, worthy of the title of the King of Heroes, a distant and beautiful and perfect alien *thing* more god than man. But he comes down on the side of humanity because at the end of the day he is still partially one of them, and it is right here, as he's praised for trying, as he realizes what he said aloud about Priscilla, that that shows clearly. He is still, for all the world, a young man, and a young man in love, and it is nice to hear from your girlfriend(?)'s best friend that you make a good match. That you *trying* is in fact worthwhile, and not just an endless parade of frustrations as you watch the people you try for stumble and fall.

     It takes him a few moments to finally say, "...I can fix the sand when the rain is done," because he can do that, he can sweep away the mud and bring back the sand. And then, as his blush dies down and that imperious face returns, and he lowers his hand back against his cheek and closes his eyes, he says, "Maybe."

     "But I am a symbol. I have said as much before. I am the mountain that humans cannot climb but make themselves greater for the attempt. If I lowered myself, allowed myself that..."

     He shakes his head, and his eyes open, and he resumes scritching the wolf. "No. It's not important. Not right now."

     "Some other time."

     He drums his free hand on the arm of the throne. "...I always liked swimming. I did a lot of it in the rivers. A lot of it in the ocean, though rarely for pleasure. The ocean was never a place I swam for pleasure. Only to kill things worse than other things."

     "In truth I like river and lakesides more than oceansides. Something about the running water reminds me of Babylon. The beating water of the ocean is not nearly so calming."

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Mariner stares at Rean blankly. He doesn't panic, but, he accepts there's nothing he can do. That's just the kind of Stand he has. Ocean Man is a natural disaster ...but its effect is only truly dangerous when he's subjected to the area of effect as well. As a long range autonomous stand, it acted mostly outside of his control.

A mindless thing going through the motions. There couldn't be a more fitting Stand for someone like this.

His bluff was called, and Rean successfully defeats Mariner in a flash. As soon as he goes down, the raging wind dies down. The rain stops, and the rainclouds vanish as if they were never there to begin with, as if it were all a mirage.

STAND USER: MARINER    STAND NAME: OCEAN MAN
        RETIRED

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Skewered by arrows, Blackmore began to stumble back, only for Mikoto to pin him to the ground, planting her sword firmly into his shoulder. With the disappearance of Ocean Man, his own Stand disappeared from his face, leaving his young face exposed for all to see. Despite his stature, he was a young man no older than twenty at most, tears streaking from his eyes and a look of horrid despair on his face. Not for the pain he suffered, but, because he had failed.

What a terrible boy he was, after Master had taken him in so kindly ... and he failed him in his most important hour. Despicable. He wished they would just cut off his head and save him the disgrace.

Jonathan approaches. "Thank you, everyone..this would have gone terribly without all of you. Now ... Blackmore."

Jonathan grimaces. "I'll heal your wounds with my Hamon. If I don't, with certainty...you'll die. Either from the trauma of those air cannons and all the battering your insides have taken otherwise, or the blood loss from your other injuries."

        BAM!
        "I refuse."

"Jonathan Joestar. You cannot understand the debt I owe to my Master, or the love I have for him. I've dishonored him enough today." he rasps, the gap in his teeth whistling as he sucked in air.

Suddenly, and abruptly, before anything else can be said, his eyes begin to buldge. "M-Master...so you're punishing me...afterall...uwooooh!"

In a bloody slurry, Blackmore's head explodes, leaving a terrible squid monster in its place, screeching. The same thing was happening with Mariner, too!

"G..good god! Take this, OVERDRIVE!"

With a karate chop, Jonathan vaporizes the first creature with a surge of crackling life energy. The one that popped Mariner's head and killed him instantly was left squirming in the desert sunlight, however, as Rean's shadow didn't stretch far enough to protect it like Jonathan's had for the first one. It burned away like ash.

Damocles (7234) has posed:
Damocles wishes he could say this was the first time he'd seen a guy's head explode when a tiny eldritch monster burst out of it. He really does.  But it really isn't.  Still wasn't how he was expecting this day to end, though. 

Still, that wraps up this fight cleanly.  He brushes himself off, checks over his staff to make sure there's no lingering weirdness on it, and heads over to rejoin the others.

"Well, I'm sure you're dying to answer every little bit of lingering questions about THAT.  But, before the Q&A, might I suggest we go grab what we came here for before some sneaky jerk slips in and makes off with it?"

Arcadia has posed:
Squids popping out of heads to kill them. Okay, that is visceral and pretty freaking weird, even by the standards Arcadia normally deals with. Jojo's explaination... doesn't do much to dampen that impression.

"Did that just happen?" The sphinx makes a disgusted expression. "That's just sick and wrong."

The magitek options are no longer required so she deactivates and recalls them.

Yuuki Kuran (518) has posed:
"I lived in snowy mountains and forests most of my life. I could take the train to other places, but that was where I lived. I remeber looking up the mountains, and wondering if there was more snow up those peaks, or if past the clouds was some sort of heaven. A sparkling, glimmering place."

"I think it's in my nature to see mystery and imagine the best in things. But what I think you should take away: is that even a mountain is allowed a secret life, above the clouds. Priscilla is someone who you can't say is below the clouds for you, so, this is your opportunity even for the mountain to have a glittering mystery under the stars."

Yuuki lifts her chalice and tilts it to her lips, gulping down the last of Gilgamesh's ambrosic liquor, placing the cup on the arm of his throne. "Your wine is very good, Gilgamesh. Thank you for sharing!" She beams.

No matter how fine, beautiful, or well-worked the cup is - it's not Yuuki's. It wasn't gifted to her. So she returns it without question.

"I think rivers and lakes are nice, but I much prefer to skate on them. But ice and snow are homey to me, so I suppose that's a given."

Finally, she looks to the wrap-up of the fight - and Jonathan's use of the Hamon. "I think 'dreamlike' is right, though. About Jonathan? His power is *mesmerising*, but perhaps it is becuase it is a power of the 'sun'. Like a warm blanket. I'm the terrible sort of monster who sleeps with the sunrise, though." Yuuki laughs.

Mikoto Shimizu (7002) has posed:
Mikoto twists the blade before she pulls it out and walks away.  She needed that last one because she wasn't going to get to make him pay.  Oh well, but she at least doesn't mind.  It's Jojo's call, in the end, and can appreciate those who have a less pragmatic way of dealing with things.

He even goes to heal him, to which he refuses.  He goes on about his master, and then...well horror.  She stares at it, hands trembling for a moment as she tries some breaths to calm her down.  Ok, it's fine.  

"Fuck whoever sent that guy.  Holy shit, nobody should ever work for that FEMA abusing asshole."

Gilgamesh has posed:
     "My wine is the best," Gilgamesh says idly as he picks up the goblet and stares at it.

     "That's...not incorrect. She is..."

     "..."

     "...the very first person I have ever truly been able to love. That in and of itself is a mystery."

     There's another bit of color on his face as the goblet vanishes. The various stones Gilgamesh lent out to people also vanish, turning to gold sparkles and trailing off into nothingness.

     He stands up. The throne, the pavillion, the statues, the whole thing just vanishes into sparkles that trail along behind him as they fade out, a golden halo for a golden king's golden frame.

     He stops next to Jonathan. He does not look at the man. He snaps his fingers, and his black coat and pants surge into being around him. His hand is already in his pocket.

     "I'll be expecting my arrows when they're found," he says, "I don't care if you keep one or two as payment, but hold out on me, and there will be trouble, Jonathan Joestar."

     He puts a hand on Jonathan's shoulder.

     His grip is indeed that of an ancient god-king.

     His hand trails off Jonathan's shoulder as he walks off, whistling the tune to Walk Like An Egyptian. Apparently it got stuck in his head.

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
"Ah, right ... he took something from one of the workers." Jonathan murmurs, reaching down to search Blackmore's corpse. In the end, the 'key' wasn't what one would expect.

All the rain had cleaned it up nicely, washing away the crusted dirt and debris and revealing the golden Rhinoceros Beetle in all of its glory. " ... ?"

And so they're left with a single treasure under blinding heat that was already drying them off from the monsoon, knee deep in mud and short roughly five workers. It didn't bode well for the rest of their Adventure.

The sensation on his shoulder was tight, uncomfortably so, but his musculature held strong. In a way, it was about as close to a very firm handshake as you'd probably get out of Gilgamesh; especially with the solemn warning he's delivered. "Yes, that's fine with me. As long as he doesn't have them, it's all I can ask for."

            TO BE CONTINUED...

Crys Gattz has posed:
It's a grim fate, but soon the attackers are no more. She's been in the sector for a very long time, and it's rare for her to see something his gruesome. She doesn't look away but she does shake her head as she banishes her weapons.

"If any of the work crew need healing I can help..."

She's going to need a healer herself from the looks of things, but she's still on the clock after all.

Damocles (7234) has posed:
Damocles leans over to look at the recovered artifact.  It's not what was expected, but Damocles definitely knows enough to not write it off.  He inspects it carefully without trying to take it away from Joestar, in particular looking for any magical resonance . 

"Well, 'cephalopops', whoever he is, thought this shiny bug here was worth spending two minions on."