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karlachgale95 · 3 months ago

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Hearts of the Multiverse-Chapter Eleven: New Moon on Monday

Author's Note: I worked hard on this one! I hope you guys enjoy the mystery! Please make sure to leave a comment saying whatever you want! :)

King Clawthorne was getting used to the weird behavior of the people in Kurain Village. And there were some real weirdos here. The lady who had passed out in the dinner hall was surprisingly one of them. She threatened people with whips when she woke up; Steven had to ‘bubble’ it. She took offense to that.

“I don’t know why I’m still here,” Franziska, or as he’d taken to calling her, Franny said. “I need to get to Edgeworth to show him these files.”

King looked through the files; they had had a few profiles one on her adopted brother, his lawyer friend, himself, one on his adopted sister, Luz, his adopted mother, Eda, one on Raine Whispers, oddly enough one on Steve, and a few other people. As strange as it might’ve sounded, King and Franny got along well.

Franny turned to him, “We can travel together if you’d like. The people here are strange. I’m not sure I trust them to take care of children.”

“As much as I wanna help my friends,” King began, “I don’t think anyone here is that bad. They’re weird but not bad. Maybe we can all help each other.”

He’d really started to sound like Luz nowadays. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, in his opinion.

“We’re not getting any closer to the truth by staying here,” Franny said.

"That’s true,” King said. “But maybe people here can help us! Doesn’t Iris know your brother?”

“She does, but it’s unlikely she’ll want to see that fool, Phoenix Wright.”

That name sounded so familiar. A memory flashed through his mind:

He and Luz were relaxing in the Owl House after doing a bounty hunt on Scrongle the UniSquirrel. Luz started talking about video games she liked. There was this one about a guy fighting a virus, and he couldn’t drive—at all. Leon something or another.

“And then there’s ace attorney,” Luz had said. “It’s about these two lawyers—Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth. Well, they’re not the only ones, but its their tragic backstory and queer-coded relationship that matters.”

“Oh! He’s the ace attorney guy!” King said.

Franny scoffed. “Hardly an ace, King. I suppose you’ve seen that wretched commercial on the TV.”

“Uh…sure? Probably. I usually just stream stuff.”

Franny paused. “I suppose that’s something that’s in the future.”

It was quiet for a moment before King spoke up again, “Hey, Franny, I’m gonna go see if I can talk to Aang. He might be able to help us. He seems pretty determined to get back to his friends. He might even know where your brother is.”

“You can try,” Franny said. “Hopefully you’ll be better at talking to them than I was.”

“People tend to be scared of whips, Franny.”

“Hmph.”

King walked around the grounds of the Kurrain Village; apparently the bridge connecting to another part of the place had burned down in some sort of incident. The cavern below was rocky and a far fall down. There was a little blood on the ground. He didn’t want to think about the poor guy who’d fallen down there.

“Looking for somebody?”

“Weh!?”

King turned to see the very tall guy/kid (?) who was around Luz’s age, maybe a couple of years older. His name was Jotaro Kujo. He was a bit standoffish from the rest of the group. Maye he was just shy?

Jotaro peered over the side. “I wouldn’t be looking over there if I were you. You’re probably too young to be seeing stuff like that…how old are you, anyways? You seem like a kid.”

“Nine, I think. I’ve been with Eda for nine years.”

“Huh. So, you are pretty young. What are you?”

“It’s…kinda secret. Sorry.”

“You can’t tell me. Got it.”

It was quiet for a minute before Jotaro spoke up again. “Did you want to go out and look for your friends again? Koichi, Yugi, and I were going to help some of the younger kids figure out the train system. I figure you’ve probably never been on one before.”

“You figure right,” King said. He tapped his claws together. “Hey, uh, do you mind if we take Franny with us? She’s really worried about her brother.”

Jotaro was quiet for a minute before he sighed. “…fine.”

“Cool! I’m gonna go let her know!”

With that, King scampered off to find his eccentric, prosecutor friend.

…

Joey, Josuke, and the quiet kid who’s name they’d discovered was Frisk had been playing this Mario Brothers video game when Giorno woke up. Luckily, Sokka, Lillie, and Avdol (who had stopped by to help them out) were there to lessen the disorientation. Eventually Joey and Josuke had stopped playing video game long enough to see he was awake, but that didn’t stop Sokka from being the most responsible person in the room for a while—the thought terrified him. He ushered the kid to go with Adora and Yuichiro. While Anne and Starfire came to meet up with the others again.

He got Giorno a cup of water. He wasn’t going to do the Zuko thing where he’d automatically start asking questions about the ‘radio demon,’ but he wasn’t going to pretend everything was hunky-dory like Katara probably would have. He’d try to be as patient as possible. But he was worried. He was worried about getting home, about keeping his friends safe, finding Aang, Suki, and Toph, and he was worried for the safety of his current group. There were so many unknown factors with these monsters. Where did they even come from? The sailor senshi, who were from this universe, didn’t even seem to know.

“You okay, man?” Sokka asked. “You’ve been out for a while.”

Giorno, a little paler than usual, put the glass to his lips and nodded. “Fine.”

“Cut the crap,” Josuke said. “We know that’s not true.”

“It’s best to be honest here,” Avdol said.

“No one is going to judge you,” Lillie assured him.

Giorno was quiet. He sighed and put the glass down on a coaster near his bed. “At this point it’s probably more detrimental to be dishonest.”

He leaned forward and his face darkened. “The day I met the Radio Demon, I had been attacked by some sort of monster. Even now, I can’t say exactly what it looked like; it’s like my memory of it has been altered. All I remember is lying in a pool of my own blood, dying. That’s when I met him—Alastor—The Radio Demon. I don’t remember the terms of our agreement. Everything from that day is fuzzy. He told me once he only took a little power…but that seems to be a lie.”

“It might not be,” Avdol said. “Stands are tied with our spirits. In essence, you could’ve sold your soul through wording he knew a disoriented person wouldn’t perceive or understand.”

Giorno was silent for a moment before he murmured, “Fuck.”

“In some cases we may be able to find the demon and eliminate the threat; therefore, your soul would belong wholly to you again,” Avdol explained.

“In other cases?” Josuke pressed.

“…Sometimes deals do not end when the contractor dies. Sometimes they seek something of greater value.”

“The Radio Demon is all about power,” Giorno said. “I don’t have anything of higher value than my power.”

“Then we…” Josuke’s voice trailed off. He looked like he was searching for something to say, but nothing came to him.

“You don’t have to say it,” Giorno said. He stood up and walked to the window, turning his back to the others. “I can take care of this myself.”

“I would strongly advise against that,” Avdol argued. “If this demon is as strong as we believe, you’ll need help.”

Giorno turned and glared at him. “I don’t need anyone’s help. Like I said, I can handle this.”

The determination in his eyes was evident. It reminded Sokka of when he had failed at the invasion. Although everyone had told him it wasn’t his fault, the plan had been his own. And he had fallen for Azula’s tricks. He wondered if that’s how Giorno felt now.

The group was caught off guard as the others walked back inside. Mako and Miles looked incredibly upset, but Zuko was being propped up by Luz and Katara. Sokka internally jumped. He knew he shouldn’t have let them go without him!

“What happened?” Sokka asked.

“Two daimons, different times,” Ami explained.

“One of those unknown senshi hurt Zuko,” Katara explained.

“It’s not a big deal,” Zuko mumbled.

“There’s a huge gash on your leg!” Lillie exclaimed. She peered around the group and her eyes widened. “Ash?”

A kid with dark hair, jeans, t-shirt, vest, and yellow rat ran over to the girl and gave her a hug. “Hey Lillie! It’s good to see you again! Have you found any of the others?”

Lillie nodded. “Gladion comes over sometimes. And…everyone misses you a lot!”

Miles looked over to the group and smiled, somewhat sadly, “Sorry for the lack of a welcome back to the non-comatose world, Giorno.”

Giorno brushed him off. “Let’s get back to the main problem here.”

“Which one?” Sokka asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Very funny,” Giorno said, without much humor. “Mainly, Josuke, you should probably help them with that. I don’t know what Golden Experience can do right now.”

Josuke nodded. “Sure.”

Giorno peered over Hunter’s shoulder to see a man with floating, goopy, purple hair and strange and flamboyant attire. He looked annoyed more than anything.

“Who’s the guy with the cloak?” Sokka asked.

“I am Darius Deamonne!” the man announced with as much pomp and bombast as one of the earth kingdom royals. “I am the head coven witch for the abominat…I was the head coven witch for the abomination coven.”

“He’s cool,” Hunter said. “You can trust him.”

Miles nodded in agreement.

While Josuke helped Zuko with his leg, the group sat down and tried to collect themselves. Avdol, if possible, looked far more troubled than before. “What exactly happened?”

“We were out, and we ran into Haruka and Michiru at Zuko’s Uncle’s tea shop,” Usagi explained.

“Your uncle is here?” Sokka asked.

“Does everyone know your uncle back home?” Arven asked Zuko.

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“He’s a chill guy—for a firebender.”

“That was awful, Sokka.”

“What happened when you ran into your friends?” Avdol pressed.

“Well, Haruka wanted to apologize for almost running us over earlier,” Usagi explained. She got a few looks but continued. “Miles went off with Mako, and we went with Michiru to go look at an art exhibition. She had a few of her pieces there.”

“What happened with you two?” Giorno asked Miles.

“Haruka took us out to eat at a fancy restaurant, and then a daimon attacked us. It threw Haruka into a bunch of trees and bushes and me into the ocean. I mean, I got out, but it was too little too late. It managed to hurt Mako,” Miles explained, shuffling his feet.

“Miles, that wasn’t your fault,” Mako insisted. “It was mine! I should’ve never allowed either you or Haruka to get hurt like that!”

“Makoto is right,” Avdol agreed. “The very nature of these monsters is one-track. They seem to be designed to go after a specific target until their goal is fulfilled. Who even knows if they serve a purpose beyond this?”

“So, what happened with the rest of you?” Josuke asked.

“Well, like I said,” Usagi began. “We were hanging out with Michiru, and that witch lady showed up there—in a disguise. She handed a pamphlet to Hunter, and it turned into a daimon. There was this weird attack that hurt all of us, but Zuko was the first to stand up against them. But one of those other senshi sort of attacked him, and that’s how his leg got like that. So, Katara ended up knocking all three of them out before anyone else could get hurt!”

“They all were water-based, so it was pretty easy,” Katara said, trying to downplay her efforts.

“It was amazing,” Ami said, breathily. “I wish I could bend water like that.”

“Sounds like youse guys had a crazy day,” Joey commented.

“I’ll say,” Katara agreed. “We should all get some rest.”

“I just woke up.”

“Oh…right.”

“It’s fine. I’m going to keep guard,” Giorno said.

“Not alone,” Miles said.

“You guys look super tired,” Sokka said. “I’ll help you.”

He wasn’t as tired, and hearing all he had heard set him on edge. Then again, underneath all the humor, he was always on edge. Heck, even the humor was a little edgy. He could help look out for people who couldn’t keep their eyes open.

“Me too,” Luz agreed. “Anything to stop those creepazoids.”

“Seems like a pretty good plan. Joey and I are gonna crash for the night. Our eyes feel tired for some reason,” Josuke said with a yawn.

“Maybe because you spent several hours staring at a screen?” Avdol suggested.

“Ugh. You sound like my mom.”

“Maybe your mother has some valid points.”

…

Bede typed in every username and password he could think of to get into his old competition account. True, Oleanna had kicked him out of the competition, but she could never truly delete his entry completely, right?

“This is taking too long!” the champion’s miserable little annoyance remarked.

Silver shushed him, which brought a small smirk to Bede’s face. They were sitting in the park, trying to think of where to go from here. As it turned out, Seto Kaiba had needed to talk to Gwen Stacy about something, so Peony’s daughter, the strong devil woman, and ‘Blade of the Frontiers’ went with them.

“Do you want me to try and hack into your account?” Penny asked.

“I’ve tried that, no amount of—!” Bede began. He sighed and handed her his Pokenav. “You know what? Fine.”

She took it and not five seconds later, handed it back; he was logged in to his old account!

She pushed her glasses up, “I’m pretty good at hacking into things.”

“I’ll say,” Hau agreed. “That was faster than a Mantine surfing through a tidal wave.”

“Th-thanks.”

Bede let the device float in the air for a few seconds before calling out to Gardevoir. “Gardevoir, can you help me filter through the posts for any future sights where Chairman Rose may be appearing in public.”

Gardevoir gave him a skeptical look, obviously not sure why he was going to meet with the person who had hurt him most. He appreciated the sentiment, but now was not the time.

“It’s for good reason. Please help me.”

With one last look of hesitation, Gardevoir nodded and sifted through a barrage of articles on an interview at a local diner scheduled for tomorrow. They could ambush him there!

“Alright! Not bad!” Hop said. “I guess…we owe you one.”

“Yes. You do,” Bede said with a sneer.

Bede almost thought he heard, ‘what a piece of work.’

“Alright now let’s make plans to catch this Rose guy off guard!” Toph declared.

“Yeah…that’s not happening,” an old woman’s voice spoke up.

They looked up to see the two lawyers Kaiba despised, the goofball spirit medium that ran with them, an old woman with a hook for a hand (she looked like she belonged in Team Aqua), a person with short blueish-gray hair and glasses, Abbachio, and his friend who had taken him on their investigation walking toward their group.

“Ah! So many people,” Penny quietly exclaimed.

“And just who are you people?” Karlach asked, her hand, almost instinctively, reaching for her weapon.

“Calm down, we’re their guardians,” the woman explained. She looked to Bede, Silver, and Mokuba. “Well, some of them, anyways.”

“There’s no way we’d let you guys go and try to investigate this Rose person,” Phoenix Wright, the bumbling one said.

“But tomorrow might be our only chance!” Gus protested. “If not then, when?”

“For you? Not ever,” the person with the glasses said. “We’ll be taking over from now on.”

“How did you guys even know where we are?” Toph asked.

The old lady pulled out some sort of device similar to the Pokenav, showing her a text from Wally saying they were near Kaiba Corp. Wally chuckled and coughed. “I wanted them to know we were safe.”

“With no due respect,” Bede said. “I know Rose better than anyone else! I should be the one to do this!”

They were NOT going to take away his opportunity to get back at Chairman Rose or Oleanna. They had to pay for just abandoning him! They abandoned him just like his parents, and they all deserved to pay!

“And with due respect,” Miles Edgeworth said, crossing his arms. “This case is far too personal to you. We can question Rose without getting hurt.”

“That’s what you think,” Bede said. “I know Rose. If he’s got anything to do with those monsters, he’ll stop at nothing to accomplish his goals. Don’t think you’re so special!”

Abbachio’s friend decided it was his turn to speak. “Listen. We know this is difficult for you, but we need all of you to remain out of this. We can take care of this on our own. We’ve got the ability and experience to deal with any monsters if things get too bad. Having children involved becomes a…liability.”

“You’re not listening to me,” Bede snapped. “No one ever listens to me!”

“I’m with Bede on this one,” Hop said, throwing him off. “You can’t just kick us out of this.”

“Actually, they can. And if they don’t, I will.”

And now, he knew both of them had to listen. The shadow of a Charizard loomed over them and steady footsteps to their left got closer.

“Who are you?” Wyll asked.

The new nuisance grinned just like his protégé as he did his stupid pose. “Champion Leon at your service!”

…

Jotaro carried King on his shoulders. He was light enough, and King had wanted to get some high ground to see if he could see his mom and sister. So, why not help the little guy out? He didn’t seem to be dangerous, just hungry, all the time.

Besides, Jotaro had a keen interest in finding people close to him, too. He’d heard some of the dead had returned to life. If that was so, it could be possible that Iggy, Avdol, or Kakyoin were among those people he lost. And, despite himself, he did miss them. And if he were here, it was reasonable enough to think the old man, possibly Polnareff, and other stand users had found themselves here. And Koichi Hirose and Rohan Kishibe swore they knew him—in the future. Apparently Koichi (Rohan, not so much) was best friends with his…uncle. He’d have words for the old man later. Grandma Suzy wasn’t someone to be so cheaply disrespected like that.

And…if there were stand users being brought back to life…that could stand to reason that HE’D been brought back, too.

Jotaro sighed and tipped his hat. It didn’t matter. He’d beat him again, burn the damn ashes if he had to, and he wouldn’t let anyone get hurt this time.

He promised himself that.

“So, where do you think your brother could be, Franny?” King asked.

“He’ll probably be with that foolish defense attorney.”

“And where would he go?” Yugi asked.

Yugi Mutou was a champion at some card game that was popular in this era. So much so that someone he knew owned a company that dealt with technology advancing the popularity and playability of the game. Kakyoin would be more interested in something like that—if he were alive.

“Excuse me!” an annoying voice spoke up.

There was a man with a TV for a head standing behind them. Why did he have a TV for a head? Why anything, really? Screw this place. It was weirder than some of the stand users he’d had to face. Well, maybe not the orangutan…

“Who are you?” Koichi asked.

“The name is Vox,” the man (?) explained. “I run a broadcast on television, the best and modern medium, to keep everyone up to date on current news. Couldn’t help but notice you folks seem a little out place, though, I’m one to talk.”

“Yes, you are,” Franziska added haughtily before Jotaro could. Hmph. Maybe she wasn’t so terrible.

“Oh! You’re Miss Von Karma! You’re the famous prosecutor! I heard you graduated from law school when you were, what, fifteen?” the television went on, clearly trying to be charming.

“Fourteen,” Franziska corrected. The attempts did not work. “Now, if you’ll step aside, we can get back to our business without fools interjecting themselves into it.”

“Hold on!” Vox objected, waving his hands to stop them. He gestured to King, seeming indifferent. Almost too indifferent. Jotaro always had the knack of picking up on the subtle expressions of anyone—even if they weren’t human. There was some interest there. But why? King was a mystery, true. But he was just a kid. Jotaro would break his screen face if he tried to hurt him. “I overheard your conversation. You’re looking for Miles Edgeworth, right?”

“Do you know my brother?” Franziska asked, narrowing her eyes at the man.

“Who doesn’t?” Vox asked. “It just so happens that I’ve overheard he’s going to be attending an interview session of mine tomorrow. I think he has a few questions for this Chairman Rose I’m interviewing. I…think he might be up to something. Your brother could be in serious trouble.”

Franziska was quiet for a moment, seeming to hesitate on what to say. “You have five seconds to explain.”

“Thank you,” Vox said, straightening the collar of his suit. “Chairman Rose is a serious technological genius. I’m interviewing him to alert the public of who he is. I think he’s the one who stole Mr. Kaiba’s technology, into which your brother is investigating. If he really wants to remain innocuous, he’ll probably use said technology to shut your brother up for good…if he shows up tomorrow. If you’re there, you might be able to help him.”

“Oh yeah?” Jotaro scoffed. “And why should we trust you?”

“Because I can help you,” Vox insisted. “All I want is to help the public.”

Like hell he believed that. But, if he had some semblance of answers, Jotaro was sure he could defend himself and anyone who came along should things get ugly. And they really needed some clues or leads as to where they were, who was stuck here with them, and what exactly they were up against.

“We’ll be there,” Franziska said. “But if you’re lying to me, I swear on my badge, I will mount your head on my wall!”

“You wound me, Miss Von Karma. Ye of little faith. Just trust the process. Trust me. I’m going to help all of you.”

It was weird, but when he spoke, it was as though no one could look away. Even he found himself nodding along. He’d be there tomorrow, of course. Why wouldn’t he be? It was set in stone.

“Good. Now, run along. Tomorrow is a big day, for all of us.”

…

Noriaki Kakyoin watched as Jotaro and the people surrounding him walked away from the television personality, Vox. He had wanted to step out of the alleyway he’d ducked into and shown Jotaro that he was alive and didn’t have a massive, gaping hole in the middle of his body. But then that man had started speaking to them, his mouth pouring a purple haze that seemed to entrance Jotaro and his new companions. Good thing he’d been on a walk to clear his head from the Giorno Giovanna guy. He looked so much like Dio, but Avdol had assured him he wasn’t a threat…for now.

Kakyoin held his mouth shut as two more people, one mothman and a shorter woman joined Vox.

“That was surprisingly easy,” Mothman commented, taking a drag from his cigar.

“Well, you know what they say, Val: curiosity kills,” Vox said with a laugh.

“So, our partners are coming tomorrow, then?” the woman said, flipping through her phone as though bored to death.

“Yes, and if we can give them Jotaro Kujo and the Titan, why we’ll be fucking high-class rulers. Hell, we’ll be drowning in so much money!”

“And bitches,” Val said in a way that made Kakyoin’s stomach turn.

“If you two can keep your big mouths shut,” the woman said. Her lips turned to a smirk. “I sense we have a stalker among us.”

There was no way they knew he was here. They couldn’t know!

“It’s true,” a chilling man’s voice spoke behind him. He hadn’t even heard anyone there! Yet, there he stood, a man in an orange and black suit and mask, armed to a T with different swords and weapons. He grabbed him faster than he could react and threw him in front of the trio. “He was there the whole time.”

“Naughty,” the mothman said, wagging a finger. He turned to his compatriots. “Should we kill him?”

“Probably for the best,” Vox said with a nod. “Sorry kid, it’s just good business. You’d understand if you got any older.”

Like hell he was going to let them hurt Jotaro. Jotaro, Polnareff, Mr. Joestar, Avdol, and Iggy had been his only friends. Jotaro had saved his life! Saved him from being Dio’s mindless slave.

He summoned Hierophant. “Hierophant Green! Twenty meter emerald—!”

He was cut off as someone hit him with some blunt object in the back of the head. He tried to get up, but someone pressed the full weight of their body onto his back.

“Just hold still, this will only hurt a second.”

“Oh no you don’t!” a girlish voice called out from above.

Kakyoin, straining to get his eyes to focus, looked up to see someone who looked like a harpy holding a girl with purple hair and elf ears. The harpy woman with short red hair threw the suited man back about twenty feet, while the purple haired girl that appeared to be a little younger than himself, maybe fifteen, drew a circle in the air that summoned three purple, goopy creatures that lashed out at the trio.

“Let’s get out of here,” the harpy woman said, grabbing Kakyoin and the girl by their waists.

The feeling of jettisoning into the air while dizzy was not a pleasant one.

The girl beside him gave him a sympathetic look, “If you’re not used to flying, you can close your eyes. It might make you feel better.”

He did end up closing his eyes—not by choice. He passed out. He woke up to hear the harpy woman talking in a rushed voice.

“They’re after my nephew!” she hissed. “Well, I’ll make sure they’ll never be able to go after anyone again.”

“I’ll help,” a gravelly voice said. “I mean, they’re after Jotaro. I know Josuke would be upset if anything happened to him. I’ve gotten better with the Hand to help…I think.”

Who was this? How did Jotaro know him? Kakyoin sat up and blinked a few times to get his vision to straighten out.

“It seems our guest has awakened,” a boy with a purple, green, and back cloth that covered most of his face said. His long and tattered robes were much the same. He held a hand out to Kakyoin. “Dost thou need assistance?”

Kakyoin, shaking his head looked for the source of the gravelly voice. He saw one other guy—he was likely the same age as him. He looked like a punk. He wore a Morioh school jacket. He had once lived in Morioh before moving. Only this guy’s jacket was decorated in dollar signs. And his hair was slicked back.

“How do you know Jotaro?” Kakyoin asked, trying to stand, but failing to do so as a wave of nausea overcame him. A girl with brown hair and green soldier’s uniform helped him back to the ground.

“Easy now. You’re safe here. We’re here to help you,” the girl assured him. “You have my promise as a Kyoshi warrior.”

“I don’t have time to relax,” Kakyoin insisted. “I’ve got to help Jotaro.”

A door shut and opened, “Mon ami, I agree. But you’re not going to help Jotaro in such a state.”

Kakyoin glanced to his left to see Jean-Pierre Polnareff, fellow crusader. Someone he hoped had survived Dio’s final confrontation.

“Polnareff,” Kakyoin said. He could feel his face soften a bit, even if he hated it. “Did you…you know?”

“Survive?” Polnareff finished for him. “I did. I…am not sure how you are here. Do you know…what happened?”

Kakyoin was acutely aware of what he had felt in his dying moments, and of course it would take Polnareff stumbling over his words to bring some sort of humor to this odd situation.

He nodded. “Yes. I remember all of it. I’m not sure how I’m here now, but Avdol is, too.”

Polnareff’s eyes lit up. “Really? Oh, this is fantastic news!”

He wasn’t ready when Polnareff scooped him up into a hug and laughed. “I’m so glad you’re both alive again! Maybe we can even find that mutt somewhere, eh?”

He continued to laugh and Kakyoin was glad to have that moment of relief. He’d been so happy when he found Avdol again, and now he knew almost everyone was safe, excluding Mr. Joestar and Iggy.

But back to business.

He glanced back to the punk. “How do you know Jotaro.”

“He came to Morioh,” the guy explained. “He helped us with the serial killer guy.”

“A serial killer…?” Kakyoin asked. He never expected Jotaro to become some sort of detective.

“He was a stand user who could explode things,” the guy elaborated. “Jotaro and Josuke beat the shit out of him.”

Now, that sounded more accurate. Except…

“Who’s Josuke?”

“My best friend. Super cool dude,” the punk explained. “He’s Jotaro’s uncle…weird, right?”

Polnareff put a hand on Kakyoin’s shoulder, “I suppose and explanation is in order.”

After a thirty-minute recap from Polnareff and the punk, Nijimura Okuyasu, Kakyoin understood that Mr. Joestar had…been unfaithful to his wife, leading to Josuke Higashikata. Apparently, Mr. Joestar had shown Okuyasu a picture of his days as a crusader, so he knew who they were. Though, he complained that Mr. Joestar couldn’t hear any of his questions, so he barely knew anything about Kakyoin or Polnareff. He wondered if that had been intentional on Mr. Joestar’s part. Still, Polnareff and Okuyasu seemed to get along surprisingly well.

During this time of explanations, the others introduced themselves. The boy in the torn robes and cover was Atticus. He kept many Pokémon, unlike his Cherubi Gladion had helped him catch. They were all poison types. The harpy woman’s name was Lillith. Her nephew had been the tiny creature Jotaro carried on his shoulders. The purple-haired girl’s name was Amity Blight. She summoned the slime creatures. And the brunette girl in the warrior’s attire was Suki. She was the leader of the Kyoshi warriors.

They had been staying with a retired businessman named Edwards. He lived in a nice mansion in Tokyo. He didn’t have any family, and after hearing that a bunch of people were going homeless in Tokyo due to the dimensional collision, he decided to open his doors to refugees. During this time, Lillith had been searching for her sister and her nephew, Amity her father, siblings, and her girlfriend, Okuyasu was searching for Josuke and Koichi (which apparently had been the boy in the Morioh school uniform with Jotaro), Suki was searching for her friends and her boyfriend, and Polnareff had been searching for any of them. They’d met when they fought some of the daimon off, and all this time, they had been more concerned about finding their friends.

Just as concerned as he was to getting to Jotaro now. He had to repay him. He had to help him! Because, for some reason, he had decided to help him all those years ago.

“Alright,” Kakyoin said. “What’s the plan?”

“Right…plan.”

Lillith laughed nervously. “The truth is…there is no plan.”

…

“Do you mind if I join you?”

Ami sat down with Luz, Giorno, and Sokka. Sokka hadn’t been aware said girl had stayed over this late. It was almost ten. Everyone else from the study group had left.

“Ami?” Luz questioned. “You okay? You look a little sad.”

“I’m fine,” Ami assured her. Her eyes drifted to the ground. “It’s just…everyone here is so strong, they have amazing dreams and ambitions, and Katara is simply amazing. She made waterbending seem almost effortless.”

Sokka had a feeling that he knew where this was going. He remembered how he felt with the others before Master Piandao had taught him the way of the sword. Being surrounded by people who could do all those incredible feats of nature was intimidating to say the least.

“I used to be so jealous of Katara, Aang, and Toph,” Sokka said. “Then I met Master Piandao. He taught me how to be a swordsman and showed me that I had to learn how to do things my own way. You’ve gotta understand yourself and what you want in life to find your place and your way. Really, it’s all up to you where you go and how you let other people make you feel about yourself.”

Ami was silent for a second. “I feel the same way. I don’t mean to be jealous. I love my friends very much…but I’m afraid all I’m good for is being the brains of the group.”

“And what’s so bad about that?” Giorno asked with a shrug. “You can probably see more things that Usagi, Mako, Mina, and Rei can’t see. I mean, you’ve been able to find a number of daimon with that scanner YOU built. So as impressive as raw power is, knowing how to guide it is sometimes even more important.”

Maybe this guy wasn’t so bad. Maybe Giorno was like Zuko; they just needed to give him a chance. Though, he didn’t want to have to break into a Fire Nation prison with him.

“But, everyone thinks all I do is study, even Usagi. She interrupted the studying session today to announce that I needed to focus on my studies. I’m sure she meant well, but it stung a little,” Ami said, tears sneaking at the corner of her eyes.

“I agree with Giorno,” Luz said. She grinned. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting to study. When I went to Hexside, I wanted to study everything! A lot of people back home thought I was a nerd, but that doesn’t really matter. I had friends and family who loved and embraced my nerdiness. It’s the same for you. Your friends care about you, even if they can be a little overbearing about it.”

Ami wiped her eyes. “Thank you. I appreciate your advice.”

“Say, you want to be a doctor, right?” Luz asked.

“Yes!” Ami said, her eyes brightening.

“Maybe I can teach you some healing glyphs! I’ve been working on relearning them lately. Stringbean and I are getting pretty good at collabing with King on new Titan-language glyphs. They’re super easy to learn!” Luz offered.

Ami smiled. “I think I’d like that!”

“And I can give you some sword-fighting tips, if you’re interested,” Sokka said. “If nothing else, you can learn how to use the land around you for defense. It’s one of the most important and basic battle tactics.”

…

As the four continued to talk, they didn’t notice Kaolinite watching them from a building a bit far off. She could see them due to the powers Professor Tomoe had entrusted her with, and she seethed in anger. She’d never fit in with a regular society. Now even that freakish boy who had sold his soul had friends?

Well, it didn’t matter. Tomorrow was the beginning of the end.

For all of them.

#jjba #pokemon #pure heart crystals #ace attorney #miles morales #owl house #sailor moon #across the spiderverse #avatar the last airbender #kaolinite

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m0r1bund · 2 years ago

Photo

This thing’s a mile long, so the rest of the image captions are enclosed under the cut. Continue reading below or at m0r1bund.com ▶︎

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[Image: A big ‘ol sketchpage of funny little centaur-spider-beetle guys. From the waist down, they are mostly hexapedal, with thick carapaces and stocky limbs that are equal parts ungulate- and insect-like. Their upper bodies are more humanoid, with two arms and an upright posture. Their chests and shoulders are enclosed in large, collar-like shells, and their heads are covered by a carapace forming a hood. They have a vaguely avian profile, with large, blunted beaks and oversized mandibles inset into their jaws.

One of them, Rho, hangs out with area human and research assistant Reyes. Rho is bipedal instead of hexapedal, with segmented satyr-like legs and a short, stubby carapace ‘tail.’ Her left arm and leg are mechanical prosthetics, as well. She watches Reyes shred on a makeshift hoverboard that they probably ripped off of a hunk of Imperial junk. In another doodle, Rho rides an old Imperial motorbike through the wastes.

Her cohort Oeste is a battle-scarred old woman with kind of a puckish, sanguine energy. He is missing his left arm. He’s variously drawn hoisting a basket of fish over his shoulder and getting up on his back legs to reach some fruit at the top of a saguaro arm. One drawing shows him carrying a scrongled-looking Reyes on his back, while he comments ‘This seems demeaning, somehow.’

There are some drawings from his not-so-distant past, too. He is shown contending with a space marine-lookin’ soldier on the fields of war. One drawing depicts the fateful loss of his left arm to a brutal cleave of the soldier’s longsword. In another drawing, he returns the favor by firing a mortar point blank at the soldier’s shoulder.

Only later does he learn the soldier’s identity. The Chief immediately identifies Oeste by his arm, and vice versa. It plays out like a reenactment of the ‘same hat’ meme, with the two of them pointing at each other and saying ‘The same arm!’

When the impulse to run away and self-isolate gets the better of Chief, Reyes insists ‘You should at least apologize.’ The Chief looks like she would rather die.

When she does finally sit down on neutral ground with Oeste, getting the apology out is like pulling teeth. She digs her sweaty palms into her knees and says ‘There is no way to rectify this but. I’m sorry. forcuttingoffyourarm’

To his credit, Oeste is very forgiving, if blasé. He says, ‘Oh, it’s no trouble! I think we both learned our lesson. It is very bad to flock like that! What a terrible delusion we have all suffered!’

The Chief strains. She says ‘There isn’t… Some kind of human hivemind… I did that.’

Oeste looks at her blankly and says ‘I fail to understand how that correlates with anything I have said.’

All at once, it finally clicks for the Chief. Geometry and trigonometry overlays converge with sentence fragments about imperialism and settler-colonialism to arrive at the final conclusion, captioned ‘Military industrial complexes is the same’]

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Thinking about my old buddies Oeste and Metahei Rho and [these] [guys] again. There was a time when they were called the Suhti, but ‘Suhti’ feels exactly like something I would conlang in 2013, so I’m also thinking of renaming them. Nixthi? Nixtli? Nithi? Who knows. Anyway, it was only a matter of time before they found a home bullying the Empire.

Noodling on this sketch page made me realize I was sitting on more ideas than I thought I was. These guys have been living in the back of my brain for all of 9 years, so I guess that’s typical. There’s like 9342345245 separate threads that are coming together in a way that’s hard to untangle, so I’m just going to start writing and hope for the best.

Oeste is the chipper-looking hexapod who’s missing an arm. He’s a former agent of the ‘old guard,’ who gave up the gun and dishonorably discharged himself. He’s considered a kooky old lady with an air of death around him, but is ultimately well-meaning and tolerated. Put a pin in that thought.

Rho is the biped and Oeste’s understudy / one of few people who really trusts him. She and Reyes have some history, where the ashrunners in Reyes’ family regularly met with the wasteland scavengers in Rho and Oeste and co. They’re like family friends. Put a pin in that thought, too.

Trying to describe the, I guess, thesis of the Nithi is hard. I am very leery of the way fantasy+sci fi interacts with the concept of race and especially nonhuman race. If it lingers on biology for too long then I get kind of freaked out, so it’s hard to imagine in that space, even though I love to think about nonhuman cognition + the interior worlds of plants, animals, fungi, etc. But I’m trying! God Do I Try.

Lately I’m drawn to solitary animals who seem to get a genuine kick out of the company of other animals, e.g. octopus interactions with humans. I think that’s so fun to extrapolate on. Allergic to the company of your own species, but hanging out with the funnie primate? Oh Yeah. That’s Good. Put a pin in that thought x3.

One of my bigger bones to pick with 40k is that you really don’t need to narratively justify the dumb shit the Imperium does with some kind of outside existential threat, whether that be Bugs of Unusual Size, or aliens, or Actual Demons. Giving the Imperium a “reason” to exist just feels dishonest about how empires come to be and how they perpetuate themselves. On the flip side, this is a great lesson in how empires construct narratives about themselves. Reading 80% of the 40k lore as wartime propaganda about the ‘other,’ intended to justify this atrocity or that, is what keeps me sane in the trenches of the wiki.

I also just think it’s more fun if the ‘existential threat’ is a fabrication of the unceasing machine of Propaganda ™ in the face of an empire’s own terminal* existence. Legitimate only in that, strictly speaking, it could pose an existential threat to the empire, but an existential threat to an empire =/= an existential threat to its citizens or even humanity, even though a very concerted effort has been made to conflate those. Put a pin in that thought x4.

*Did yuo know? the average empire lasts about ~250 years, which raises some funny historical revisionist headcanons for 40k, but we can’t get into it. gotta sell figs war somehow.

ANYWAY. Speaking of the unceasing machine of Imperial Propaganda, I am always looking to bully the Empire in fun new ways. I think it would be very funny for the Empire to encounter a people who are, like, categorically asocial around their conspecifics and only societal with other sentient species, because Bad Things Have Happened whenever they organize among themselves at scale. And the Empire misunderstands this to mean that they assimilate into some kind of violent hivemind when they gather en masse, but the actual reason they refuse to associate societally is because they’re living out the dying throes of their own collapsed empire. When the Archive describes the Nithi as a monolith ‘so monstrous, a force so bloody and singular of purpose that humanity shivers at the touch,’ that’s just them taking a look in the mirror and not liking what they see. The shots are coming from inside the house.

Of course, it’s great to have some kind of alien ‘other’ for the Empire to justify its existence and lionize its endeavors abroad. Every effort has been made to drive a wedge between the citizens of the Empire and Nithi at large. Probably because if they realized they had more in common with each other than the Powers That Be, as two peoples carrying the baggage of two shitty empires, they would unionize. And That Would Be Baaaaad.

… Which brings me back to Oeste. He is an ex-soldier who fled to wasteland Earth to dodge the high price of desertion, i.e. execution. He had great timing, given that the collapse of whatever dominion was lording itself over the Nithi came right on his heels.

He carries the ‘old troubles’, or wartime knowledge, that most people, Nithi or no, are wary of. But as the Empire trains its eye on Earth, this raises some very real and difficult questions about the right of sovereign Earth to defend itself, and how. Among Earth’s Nithi in particular, this is an existential question of coming together and doing a rare and terrible thing for some sort of greater good. There is enough continuity between ‘old guard’ veterans like Oeste and armed guerilla resistance in the Empire’s frontier that the Empire perceives no meaningful difference; opposition is the same, whether it comes from another empire or a scrappy resistance force. The Archive is still operating on the hivemind hypothesis, so… not likely that they’re going to grasp the intense political landscape of Nithi mutual-defense accords any time soon.

It sucks. But the silver lining is that they get to heckle Imperials with ooky-spooky hivemind jokes. And fool them into thinking they’re acting of much greater numbers and coordination when they are… absolutely not!

Anyway, Oeste came to Earth to ‘get away from all that’ and keep an eye on the youth, e.g. Rho. He hasn’t been asked about his war wounds, and he’s perfectly content not offering his opinion about them unsolicited. (At least, not when it isn’t funny.) Probably there will come a day when that will change, but he hopes not.

Of course, these things have a way of coming back to haunt a guy. Oeste doesn’t talk about his arm for the same reason that the Chief doesn’t talk about hers, or most of her past deployments. Military trauma that you can’t even pretend to be proud of. They met once on the fields of war and left a, errr, marked impression on each other. Who struck first? … That’s between the Chief and Oeste.

Seeing each other in ~peacetime causes a little bit of a situation, but they’re kindred spirits. Oeste has a lot to impart to the Chief as someone who is much further along the whole ‘deprogramming and reintegrating into normal society’ process, and who is perhaps more familiar with what Imperial programming looks like than others. Besides, someone really has to tell the Chief that the Archive might have been wrong about a few things. A lot of things.

Reyes and Rho are just happy to see the old geezer (and Irene, lbr) make a friend.

Other napkin scraps:

Dunno if the hexapod / biped variants are morphs, or lifecycle phases, or if Rho is just a special case.

Hexapod Nithi have two major gaits—they can walk in an ‘alternating tripod’ gait like an ant or a bee, or in an ungulate-like fashion with an extra set of forelimbs taped on (with all relevant gaits like walking, trotting, cantering, galloping, etc.) The joints connecting to the femur and tibia of the hindmost legs are very flexible, and can shift to accommodate the tripod gait (by facing backwards) or ungulate gait (by facing forwards.)

It is extremely bad taste to get on someone’s back like a horse why would you do that. (Oeste has no shame though.)

Probably both an exoskeleton and endoskeleton going on in here, so full-body armor is redundant except where soft tissue is exposed (upper arms, joints, etc.) Clothing and other adornments happen at leisure. Carapace carving, painting, and piercing is especially popular. Rho gets to wear pants because she physically can and because she thinks they’re fun.

Don’t ask me if they still have stingers or can spin silk or not. I don’t know. I don’t know. it would be very funny to hock a sillystring loogie, though.

After years of research, the Archive has documented many aspects of Nithi biology that make them such confounding and lethal enemies, including:

Their bulletproof carapaces (true.)

Their venomous bite (false.)

Their ability to regrow limbs (false.)

The fact that they pop out of the propagule fully formed and able to defend themselves (false.)

Their ability to communicate in subaural vibrations (true, but this is only a small component of several larger somatic language families.)

Their keen thermoreceptors (sort of true, they are coarser and more imprecise than the Archive thinks.)

Their ability to smell fear (false.)

Their inability to feel pain, remorse, or any emotion at all in a way that matters (buddy what do you think.)

The Archive is very good at science and would never lie to you.

#tfw you the social animal can't recognize another social animal #chief and the r.a. tag #metahei rho tag #oeste tag #maila reyes tag #chief tag #content warning: blood #content warning: gore #content warning: injury #content warning: war #content warning: xenophobia

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