fatealteration | (no subject)

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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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Joseph casually reached over to one of the plants on the table and gently gripped one of its leaves with three of his fingers. He took a deep breath, then adjusted his breathing. A bud sprouted from seemingly nowhere, then opened, as several stems extended and unfurling growing leaves.

"Not bad, right?" he asked, flashing a grin at Zelda.

“Oh!” Zelda looked to Shepard and back to Joseph quickly. “That’s just like Giorno’s…!”

"Giorno?"

"He runs the place," Shepard answered, leaning over the table to examine the plant.

“He’s quite…incredible. He founded the villa and the council. Its thanks to him we can all survive as well as he wave been. All the trees and vineyards and fields of food? He grew those as if by some miracle…but it’s a curious power he has.” And he was even younger than her. Truth be told, it made Zelda feel useless when she thought of all she had been good for all her life—but he and the others there had been nothing but encouraging.

And now since the abyss had opened up and what that meant for their community, she felt like she had something of value to contribute for the very first time. Thanks to her breakthroughs in technological development they wouldn’t have to depend on manual labor and Giorno’s power like they had been.

“He can be a bit elusive but I’m sure you’ll meet him soon.”

"Whaaaat?" Tch. "Is he too good to meet newcomers?"

“Oh, no! Not at all! He may not always be the first but he always meets newcomers without fail. And…if you both intend to stay for awhile, I can introduce you to Miss Juli. She handles room assignments and such.” Zelda paused to think and looked back to Shepard for confirmation. “Actually…Isn’t she with Giorno right now? She said they were visiting the new dormitories that were just built in the north complex.”

Shepard straightened in her chair, furiosity sated. "Yeah, at least they were talking about it earlier."

“That will be perfect. We’ve had so many newcomers lately - you both will be among the first to break the space in.” Zelda had to resist going on about all the innovation she introduced herself.

Joseph stood abruptly and slammed his hands against the table. "Hey, where's the toilet?"

“Just through that breezeway,” Zelda gestured at an open path that connected one part of the villa complex to the other before picking up her bread.

"OK!" Joseph gave Zelda a thumbs up before departing, then headed down the breezeway in the direction of the bathroom. But as he did, he felt something, like an invisible tug, pulling him elsewhere.

It wasn't a physical tug; Joseph wasn't being dragged by some sort of Pillarman magic. It was a strong feeling of familiarity that compelled Joseph to follow it. Maybe it was because it was so familiar that Joseph did not feel disturbed at the least by it.

After a few minutes, he stopped in front of a door. Whatever it was was behind this door. Joseph crouched down and peeped through the keyhole to see what was inside.

Nice.

"Mew?"

A fluffy white kitten circled one of Joseph's ankles inquisitively where he crouched in front of the thick wooden door.

"Hey, you've got to be quiet," Joseph said, in lower tones than he would normally. He scooped the kitten up and gave it a little scratch. "There you go." The cat got attention, which was what it wanted, right? There would be no more mews coming out of this one.

Giorno, unbeknownst to himself, came into view of the peephole as he approached his desk to shrug off his jacket and lay it over the back of the chair. He eyed an arrangement of light snacks—bread and fruit and the like—where they sat on a tray.

“Zelda really outdid herself with the temperature regulation paneling on the new units…ah, are you hungry at all?” He asked Juli who had made herself comfortable in one of the nicer lounge chairs. His room was his preferred place to debrief and he was in the habit of squirreling even more food away for them both when she visited. That, and it enabled his habit of grazing on carbs.

"No, I'm good. Criff and I are supposed to grab something to eat together later."

Juli was aware that she and Criff were almost complete opposites. They didn't have much in common, either. Still, they were both from the same place and that wasn't something that many people had in common. Maybe that's why she insisted they still do thing together on occasion.

As Joseph heard muffled voices behind the door, he quickly knelt down and peeped back through the keyhole. The kitten, subdued for now, was tucked under his arm, where he batted at a bit of loose string from his shirt, unaware of the criminal activity it had inadvertently gotten itself wrapped into.

The keyhole revealed more than it had in the split-second he had to spy through it before. The two occupants were two beautiful girls. Was that why he was drawn here?

He'd have to find out.

Giorno settled on pouring them both some water—even if he was peckish he didn’t care to eat in front of her. And as much as Criff wouldn’t have been his own first choice of company he understood their unique bond.

Having someone from the same world as you around…it wasn’t as if he hadn’t wished for the same thing many times now.

“Ah,” Giorno blinked as he handed the glass off to her, “hold on, I think Croccante is waiting at the door…”

He walked over and opened the door, expecting a white kitten—which he did find—but attached to her…

Oh no!!

Beads of sweat gathered on Joseph's face as he was greeted by the blonde. Without even thinking about it, he jerked his hand up in greeting and smiled as if he had not been peeping at all.

"Yo!"

The cat meowed.

Giorno’s face froze into a mask. Not even his blue eyes moved as he took this stranger in—but whoever he was, he felt him before he even visually processed him.

Giorno had felt strange every day of his life since being ripped away from home, but today was different. He, like always, had done his best to ignore it but there was unshakable sense that the source of it was standing in front of him.

It wasn’t until the glass was slipping from his hand and crashing to the floor that he was shaken from his stupor. Croccante jerked in the strange man’s arm and fled into his room.

"H-hey. Are you okay?" Was it really so shocking that he was peeping at the door?!

Having come back to his senses, Giorno’s expression hardened. Whatever was going on, he couldn’t lose his composure when there was a potential threat.

Even if he didn’t sense hostility, Juli was right there. He wasn’t going to take any risks.

The water pooled around their feet and the broken glass was strewn about. Giorno made no moves to clean it up.

“I’m only going to ask once—who are you?”

Urk. "Joseph Joestar."

"Giorno Giovanna. Well met, Mister Joestar. Answer me--why were you looking in my room?"

Gold Experience slowly emerged from Giorno to lay it's hands on the broken glass at their feet.

"Things will resolve peacefully if you continue to answer honestly. No sudden movements, please."

"What -- what the hell is that thing?!"

Whatever that yellow person was, it emerged seemingly out of nowhere. And person was the best word Joseph could think of to describe it -- there was no way it was human!