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"I'm sure there's got to be a city nearby," Joseph said. "Don't look so down about it! We can ask where we are then."

Caesar was nervous; Joseph could tell. Caesar was always more uptight than he was (though there were few people who weren't), but he could practically feeling the stress radiating off his body.

Who could blame him, though? One second they were in Switzerland about to confront Wamuu and now they were in --

Joseph looked at the environment around them. Tuffs of dried-out plants grew out from underneath craggy rocks; the occasional tumbleweed tumbled over a vast sea of sand. It was the complete opposite of where they were before.

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'How did it happen?'

'When did it happen?'

Those two questions replayed over and over in Caesar's mind.

Where they were--wherever they were--looked like the Accona Desert but far more barren than even that.

Lisa Lisa and Messina were nowhere to be found. Caesar worried for them, but the one he worried far more for was...

"Jojo. Stay close."

Joseph raised his arm and batted his hand. "Yeah, yeah." He felt somewhat irritated that Caesar felt the need to keep an eye on him, but he also knew he was right.

Edited 2024-10-22 03:01 (UTC)

Caesar knelt down to feel the ground. The sand scorched his fingertips but he felt nothing stirring beneath it. He tried a patch of rock next, thinking it would be easier to sense anything through the hard mineral, but he still felt nothing.

He looked up in hopes for some sign from the atmosphere. The wind was barely blowing. Aside from the tumbleweeds, the landscape looked frozen in time. Caesar's throat felt parched.

"This...has to be some trick."

"What? You think this might be a Pillarman trick?" Joseph didn't know if any of them had an ability like this, but he hadn't imagined Esidisi could do... whatever he did, either.

“It has to be!” Caesar shot back to his feet as his eyes darted around feverishly. “What else could it possibly be but the enemy trying to disorient us?”

"Well, it's not an illusion," Joseph complained. He was hot and had shed off much of his clothes. His top and coat were hung over one shoulder, leaving him wearing just a white undershirt. His fluffy hunter's cap was stuffed as best as he could into his coat pocket, though a bit of one ear hung out of it.

Despite the suffocating heat, ice prickled at Caesar’s skin.

If this wasn’t an illusion, they were really somewhere else entirely.

If they were somewhere else entirely, that meant Wammuu wasn’t anywhere to be found.

And if Wammuu wasn’t anywhere to he found, then…

Then…

Caesar turned to eye Joseph. He was whining and carrying on like he usually did. “Jojo…”

"Huh?" Joseph glanced over at Caesar.

Joseph looked healthy enough—for now. That meant they couldn’t waste time.

Caesar swallowed and began peeling off his coat.

“A town. You said you think we’re near one?”

Edited 2024-10-22 04:55 (UTC)

"Yeah," he said. "It's not like this place can be endless desert forever."

Caesar took a deep and practiced breath as he unpeeled his scarf from around his neck and wrapped it around his head. Even if he could regulate his body temperature with the right breathing, the sun was relentless.

"Lead the way." Caesar didn't know how, but Joseph's intuition about this kind of thing was far better than his own.

The two of them made occasional small talk as they traveled, but the chatter began to ebb away the longer they journeyed. Joseph was tired and parched and looking over at Caesar, he knew the blonde probably felt the same way.

When a swath of trees came into view, Joseph got his second wind and raced ahead of Caesar to check it out for himself. Caesar didn't let him get too far ahead, though, and Joseph could tell he was irritated even without having to turn around to see his face.

"Nothing," Joseph moaned as they moved through the foliage. "We'd better find something soon!" Still, it was nice to be in the shade; the area was much cooler too, almost as if puzzle pieces from two different puzzles were pressed together. The pieces fit, but the picture didn't make sense.

Chilchuck was a professional.

But he wasn't on a job right now.

The path down into the valley where Shepard's ship remained had long since been cleared of all potential hazards. Zelda and Shepard were down there as they were so often were lately together and he had tagged along out of curiosity--after all, they both seemed more and more lively each time they returned. He couldn't pretend he could keep up with whatever they went on about together, but...it did make him happy to see. Not that he'd admitted it.

The interior of the ship was overwhelming--nothing like he had ever seen at home or even anything he had seen since the world stopped making sense. He needed to take it in in small doses. Besides, it wasn't like he'd be missed if he was gone for a few minutes to decompress. With a flask of booze. A small one. After all he wasn't on a job.

He propped himself up on a tall stump and uncorked it and took a sip. He felt relaxed as soon as the wine touched his tongue. It wasn't his preferred way of imbibing but the grapes were in full season. The one he filled up on was dry--he didn't care for the sweeter ones like Giorno seemed to.

'Giorno...he's the only one who hasn't lightened up much.' Chilchuck took another sip. Things weren't bad before Shepard crash landed and the abyss opened up--far from. But things had only gotten even better since. He couldn't pretend to understand the rate of the technological advances but he knew a good thing when he saw one.

Then, his ears twitched. Rustling--footsteps. A pair of them. They sounded heavy and unfamiliar. He quickly recorked his flask and scooted towards the edge of the step to peer out over the cracked wooden perimeter.

"...Hey!" Chilchuck squinted to try and get a better look through the leaves and brush.

It took a moment for Joseph to identify the source of the sound, mostly because the target was small.

"Hey, kid!" Joseph waved his arm. "Where're your parents?"

'Ugh.'

"Same place as yours." Yeah, not too gracious, but he wasn't part of the welcoming committee for a reason. "Do me a favor and stay still 'til I get down from here, got it?"

"Dead?!" Joseph shouted back, bewildered, as Chilchuck scrambled down.

Caesar pinched Joseph’s back—hard.

“What he means to say…we’re lost.”

Joseph let out a yelp of pain. "Y-yeah!"

“I can tell.” Chilchuck didn’t even have to think twice about it. He brushed himself off as he took them in from a healthy distance.

More tall-men—really tall. The one with the dark hair easily cleared even Laios. “Alright, first things first. My name’s Chilchuck and I help oversee a village a few miles from here. I can escort you there. Last thing, I’m not a kid so process that on the trip up.”

"Oh? How old are you?" Joseph figured he was being a bratty kid who didn't want to be treated like one. He knew about that specific type of bratty kid because he was one.

"Older than you, meathead."

"Meathead?!"

"Chilchuck, is everything alright?" Zelda called as she descended from the landing ramp halfway.

"Yeah, yeah, it's fine." Chilchuck called back with a wave. He had been gone for awhile, hadn't he? He supposed he felt happy that both women spared him a thought, even as excited as they were to delve into ship repairs. "Got some wanderers. They're, uh..." He gestured at them for their names.

"Joseph Joestar."