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[ after hermes' post. ]

I'm coming over after school. We need to talk.

Edited 2017-10-10 06:16 (UTC)

[ he's very, very tempted to make some snide comment along the lines of "you're going to school?" but he's going to resist for the moment. ]

Work isn't open yet. Meet in Heropa, in the park.

[ Dio isn't awake right now, and Maurtia Falls is more his haunt now it seems. ]

Can't we meet in a respectable cafe instead, school is tiring and I'm a growing boy, Mr. Kujo.

Do I not get applause for actually attending school this time around? You've grown lax on your parenting skills. [ laff. ]

We agreed I wouldn't act as any sort of father to you. [ and boy does he not want to, because even the mention of it makes him uncomfortable. ] A cafe then. You can pick since you want to meet.

We did agree. Nevertheless, certain patterns of behaviour emerge which I tolerate because you are a good man. Do you understand?

Pick for me. I trust you won't dump me in some godforsaken burger chain.

You're very gracious and want everyone to tell you so. I understand.

[ truly dio's spawn. ]

I'll send you an address.

[ and he does. it's a small, simple place. has outdoor seating and is usually popular with young people. ]

[ that made him laugh. ]

I meant that sincerely. If nothing else, that will be your downfall. But your response is perfectly fine as well.

See you later, alligator.

[ and he does come, promptly. the outdoor seating is nice and hopefully the noise from the bustle of people would make it a bit more difficult for others to overhear them, if anything else. he orders a cappucino for himself, and dumps his schoolbag on the side like it's been such a difficult day for him in school. ]

I'm exhausted. Time to never appear in class again.

How've you been? Let's start with that, before I open up with the issue at hand.

[ he's already there, this time drinking earl grey from a small ceramic cup. the excess of coffee hasn't been great on his nerves and he's trying to be more relaxed. so far it's better than expected, but he's never been great at it so the learning process is real. ]

I'm fine. [ his uncle has returned, an angry woman who knows his daughter is here, and things may not be what they seem with an otherwise friendly priest. ] How was your day at school?

Boring. I talked to a guy who wants to kill himself and we both agreed that death by overwork is not a nice way to go.

[ when the cappucino comes, giorno swirls the teaspoon into the foam and starts licking it off his spoon, then dips the biscotti into the coffee before munching on it. ]

Are you dressing up for halloween? Because you should. I've been looking at costumes myself.

No, I won't. [ he sips a bit of tea, breathing out the excess heat. ] I'm no good at making a fool of myself. Halloween is partly about that.

[ the last time he dressed up (or rather, when his mother dressed him up) was when he was around twelve or thirteen. after that it lost some charm, and he preferred to watch horror movies in the dark. ]

"No good" .... you make me laugh.

[ because jotaro certainly says ridiculous, foolish things by himself if nothing else.

for a while he just takes the time to enjoy his cappucino. he talks to him about mundane things. asks him about the bar, asks him whether or not he's taken other interesting pictures. offers an inconsequential thing about school. when all of that is done, giorno sets his cappucino aside, signaling the beginning of a rather tedious conversation. ]

What do you think of Pucci?

We've had separate encounters with him, and I think - from what I've observed - his behaviour is fairly consistent between the two of us, though we've got a third opinion in the mix from someone named Hermes.

[ and he enjoys that conversation, though his responses are short and not very detailed. he's much better at expressing himself over text than in a proper conversation, as giorno is probably beginning to discover. so when the focus turns to pucci, his mood immediately sours. of course he knows it's necessary to discuss, but he never quite enjoys having the mundane ripped away from him. ]

He's an odd man. Works in community service. Asks a lot of questions, and doesn't say much about himself. [ a purposeful behavior, he thinks. one of a man gathering information without disclosing much of anything about himself. ] So you met her too? She's an abrasive one.

[ and also, a stand user. which complicates things so much more. ]

He wants something from .... either one of us. I can't tell what his goals are.

I did find out something from Hermes, however - well, a couple of things, really -

[ index finger, point one. ] He has a Stand. The Stand can 'steal' memories and abilities. You are not to be alone with him in private. I forbid it.

[ point two. ] It has a range of twenty metres. That's problematic. I can extend my range but not to that extent; even my Father's Stand doesn't have that range. I'm not sure about yours, but considering you took my wrist that one time we played cards, I'm assuming yours is also minimal. Correct me otherwise.

[ point three. ] He is following somebody's Orders, back in Hermes' world, and it is 2012 for her. She has publicly said that the orders are over 20 years old.

[ lastly. ] There are also three other things I'd like to talk about, but I'll wait for you to tell me about your thoughts before I mention them at all.

Edited 2017-10-14 02:03 (UTC)

[ he listens quietly, looking at giorno the whole way through with a tepid look, before peering into his tea cup. ]

Dio and I share the same range. [ and the "same type" of stand, in some sense. ] Pucci told me already about his ability to compact people's memories into discs. Hiding in plain sight with the truth... he's skilled.

[ vexingly so. dio has always been an obvious and overt evil. only a fool would think he isn't anything but a self-serving narcissist. pucci, in comparison, plays a subtler game, and that can have dangers far worse than an enemy in plain sight.

(he chooses not to make any response to that comment - "i forbid it" - because he can sense an argument hidden behind objecting to giorno's words. better to simply brush them aside and ignore it all together.) ]

As for taking orders... [ he sighs, frustrated. ] This involves me. No, worse than that - an innocent party got involved strictly because of who she is in relation to me.

The Jolyne she mentioned?

[ they didn't talk about that, because he didn't feel that she would readily give information about her. this was the first person hermes looked for outside of pucci - she probably feels strongly about her, other than the one she called a 'kid'. you don't pry open such hurts when someone's still smarting from being kidnapped to this place, that's just asking for trouble. ]

We didn't talk about her. At that time, I wanted to ask more about Pucci.

.... start from the beginning. What do you know?

[ the very same. but, he won't say that. he's told a couple people here about having a daughter, but he feels certain they aren't people from his world and so it comes with little consequence. telling someone like giorno, who is, carries a different weight. it isn't that he distrusts giorno, but he doesn't quite know how much trust to put in him yet. he's a precocious teenager, pridefully stubborn, who has the potential to become something far worse if claws sink into him.

instead, he decides to move to a different topic-- ]

Giorno, tell me - what does the word "Heaven" mean to you?

... this again? [ he frowns. he did not like thinking about it in relation to pucci, because he felt like that meant conceding a bit of truth to the man and giorno was adamant not to give him that kind of satisfaction. ]

Nothing more than what most people know of: angels, and theology, and the like. Penance and ritual and the Book of Revelation.

What am I missing? [ only a greater part of the scenario, he reckons. ]

Nothing necessarily. Your answer is the typical definition in regards to religion. [ he takes a sip of his tea, taking a small joy in the rich heated taste, before continuing down a less pleasant road. ] Now, I want you to answer the same question, but this time take any religious context out of it. Forget Gods and angels and Saint Peter at the gates.

What is Heaven then?

[ he thinks about it quietly. he doesn't think jotaro is being facetious; he doesn't think this is rhetorical. but at the same time, he's never paid attention to the notion of heaven at all. when good people die, they go to a good place somewhere. buccellati was proof of that; he's seen his soul ascend. but he doesn't quite know how to answer jotaro's question. when he answers him, he's a little less sure of himself, but less prideful; in a position to learn, and not necessarily to challenge him of what he says despite how much he disagrees about it. ]

.... like .... eternity, I suppose? In Heaven there's no sense of time, it's supposed to be the thing that comes after Armageddon, and it's supposed to last forever.

[ but he also knows of eternity. and he knows it's not necessarily good. after all, diavolo -

- no, he doesn't have to mention that right now. he glances at jotaro, waiting for him to explain instead. ]

A good answer. But, truthfully there is no wrong answer.

[ he leans back in his seat, eyes drifting away from giorno and looking past him. ]

Heaven simply is. And more than arriving at Heaven, everyone is looking to reach it. Good people and bad people alike. And what Heaven is changes between every person.

[ his eyes refocus back on giorno, firm and cold. ]

I bring this up because reaching Heaven is your father's ultimate goal. And I believe Pucci may be involved in that.

But that's -

[ impossible. impossible because how does that even happen, first of all, how does one person decide on their own to attain heaven no matter what? how?

.... but his father isn't exactly a man, isn't he? he is a vampire with a stand, albeit a powerful one. is that reason enough to wish for heaven?

belatedly, he remembers his father's words to him - "i met a very good friend of mine here ..."

and if his father wanted heaven - which he interprets here as the ability to become eternal - doesn't that explain his possibility for requiem too? ... no, that seems like a far stretch. his father was technically dead when he discovered requiem. and given pucci's abilities it might be for the best, after all, not to mention what requiem can do.

he feels frustrated. while he feels 'heaven' can explain a lot of things with regards to his dad, it doesn't explain anything at all and furthermore, it doesn't clarify. none of this explains why pucci is interested in him the way that he is. none of this explains what his role as a priest in that maximum security prison had been. it raises more questions than it gives answers, and the fact that it is beyond him shows on his face; a break in giorno's imposed calm. he had told pucci that he hadn't cared about heaven or hell. now here he is, wondering how best to comprehend the scale of this situation. ]

- how can that be his goal? Eternity doesn't necessarily mean power; it means a repetition of gestures occurring in multiple points in time, and often in unpredictable ways. Unless you control the point of repetition and the time you condemn yourself to, that's not necessarily something one would want. Does he not know this?

[ alright, so he's speaking about something incredibly personal to him. but if his father had prepared so much for heaven - shouldn't he have realized this much at all? and pucci, too, pucci who is so familiar with his brand of theology - shouldn't he know what heaven is most of all? ]

Edited 2017-10-14 05:09 (UTC)

...Remember, Giorno, that is your definition of Heaven. And there are no right answers to what it is either.

[ but it's interesting how intimately he speaks of the concept. he's curious, but it might be a topic to approach at another day and time. yet, ultimately, that isn't what matters in this moment. what matters more is the point he has to stress-- ]

I don't know what Dio seeks to gain. What I know is that whatever 'Heaven' may be to him - it can't be allowed to exist. Any Heaven he wishes to reach and control could only mean leaving the rest of the world to burn. More importantly, I know that he can't do it alone.

[ he sips his tea again, slowly, and closes his eyes. the memory returns to him. ]

"What you need is a trustworthy friend. He must be someone capable of controlling his own desires. He must be someone who is not interested in political power, fame, wealth, or sexual desire, and who chooses the will of God before the law of humans."

It is not. [ he wanted power. not eternity. heck, he wanted to be a gangstar.

rather bitterly: ] That was never my goal.

[ he grits his teeth.

he didn't know. that was the thing that bothers him the most about requiem; he had no idea what transpired in that space of dead time, only that requiem has carried out his will. and apparently, his will dictated that diavolo suffer for eternity.

but if that was a judgement borne out of his will, then what jotaro says is, inevitably, true.

as for the words he was saying to him .... giorno scoffs at him. ]

Devotion. That's what he wants? Pathetic. There is no such thing as a human who is fully capable of controlling their own desires.

He told me he never needed anyone. Yet here he is, dead and relying on the faithful to carry out his plans - the only way that he could ever count himself as being successful.

Did you know, Pucci had a birthmark too? [ he refrains from saying, 'like us'. he doesn't feel like including himself in 'us' because of who his father is. truthfully, he feels guilty, because the way jotaro had spoken about the woman involved in this matter, jolyne - she might be another relative of theirs. and if his father has plans to destroy the world, well, that only puts the fact that he's got his father's blood in him in a sharper relief. like poisoning a well.

in any case he points to the area on his neck where he'd seen it. ] It was right here. He didn't explain to me how he got it.

... [ he grits his teeth, grumbling behind his mouth. ] I don't know why he has that. He absolutely isn't related to the Joestar bloodline.

[ dio only has his because he robbed jonathan's corpse like a looted prize. what does it mean that pucci has one? he doesn't know, and he hates that lack of clarity. he's spent the better part of a decade living in irrational fears of dio's friend trying to continue what dio left behind, and now it turns out that man is here. and he's been playing jotaro a fool for the better part of a month. it's grating beyond words. ]

Dio has always relied on followers to carry his will. The man spent almost two months sending Stand users after my friends and I as we crossed the Middle East to reach Cairo. Most of them, after defeated, outright admitted that they were just hired guns promised great wealth. However, a number were devout. They believed Dio to be the ultimate power, and pledged their lives to him. Pucci may very well be one of them.

[ it would make an ironic amount of sense that dio's friend, the one to help him obtain heaven, would be a priest. he doesn't want to jump to conclusions, but if pucci was involved with something involving his daughter, something dangerous, then perhaps he can admit to himself that he's biased. regardless of whether or not he really is dio's friend... the man targeted his daughter. and almost certainly as a means to get to him, as he always feared could happen. ]

You didn't know about me until it was necessary for you to know about me. [ giorno points out, rather annoyed. ] It's very likely that those who become part of the Joestar bloodline, whether through natural or artificial means, can obtain the mark and are therefore are inexplicably tied to this conflict we have in our hands.

[ he lets out a loud exhale. ] It's unfair, you know. All I ever wanted was Naples. I'm sure all you ever wanted was the ocean as well as a few people to call your family. But here we are, about - what, four generations in? And we're still having problems, about a war we never asked to fight in in the first place.

I already fought for my life weeks and weeks ago. I already attained my goal. To find that in the future, something would threaten such hard work I've put in, when almost all of my friends have died to ensure that we see it through the end ....

[ he leans against his chair, arms folded across his chest, throwing his head back as he feels the beginnings of a headache come on. and then he decides to be honest to jotaro: ]

And after all this, we still can't move on from Cairo ...

In Naples, Jotaro, I took over the head of the local Mafia gang Passione and became their Don. The members of my inner circle are Stand users, and we recruited the same kind of users to work for me. The goal is neither here nor there. You can assume as to how those kinds of things get arranged and established.

I believe you know my consigliere, however, seeing as this involves a number of things tangentially related to my father. [ he's seeing a pattern here. ] His name is Jean-Pierre Polnareff.

That Pucci is interested in me worries me. Does he know about who I will become? Here it is no issue - we are all starting from a point where nobody has an advantage of resources over the other, and knowledge doesn't necessarily make you more or less immune about someone's power or tenacity. But I worry, all the same.

Edited 2017-10-14 06:12 (UTC)

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