[X] It's probably a good idea to not use your Stands in a blatant way. You don't want those assholes to spread rumors about you and Cesare having strange powers...that cannot be explained as Hamon.
-[X] Use Pearly Gates like a suit of armor blocking attacks and making us hit harder, leave them on the floor
[X] It's probably a good idea to not use your Stands in a blatant way. You don't want those assholes to spread rumors about you and Cesare having strange powers...that cannot be explained as Hamon.
-[X] Use Pearly Gates like a suit of armor blocking attacks and making us hit harder, leave them on the floor
[X] It's probably a good idea to not use your Stands in a blatant way. You don't want those assholes to spread rumors about you and Cesare having strange powers...that cannot be explained as Hamon.
-[X] Use Pearly Gates to make your opponents trip and fall on their faces, then kick the evershit out of them.
THE SCHEDULE WORKS. HOLY SHIT NO I WAS NOT PREPARED TO ACTUALLY HAVE THIS WORK OUT-
|||
You decide almost immediately that you can't use your Stand. If it was one or two of them, maybe you could get away with it, nobody believes just one or two people. But seven people, all with the same story?
No, that's too suspicious. That draws too much attention to you and the others.
"RRRAGH!" One of the thugs yells as he moves to break your jaw. Before you can react, Pearly Gates is out and gently pulling you around the punch, leaving you in the perfect position to grab his wrist, pull down, and drive your elbow into his with a sickening crack. Leaving him to deal with his freshly broken arm, you come to the conclusion that, no, she's not going to take chances. So, instead, you decide to work with her instead of telling her to sit down and shut up. "I don't normally do this kind of thing..." DC17, Roll: 17. Bare Success!
Sensing your trepidation to use her in the standard punchghost manner, she mostly fades away, leaving only arms and her head beside yours, just out of your peripheral vision.
... This works. This works well.
Maybe. You grab a guy, your Stand's arms phasing through yours to lend her strength, and you find the mook in your arms weighs nothing as you lift him off his feet and throw him into one of his comrades.
... Heh. Hehehehe.
Heheheheheheeee~
You could get used to this~
Neither is particularly damaged by your throw, you think the one taking the impact might be a little winded from having, what, 180 pounds of bone and flesh hit him in the chest, but otherwise they're getting up.
Ha. No.
You walk casually over to the two of them, the other three left being kept at bay by Cesare, and with the help of Pearly Gate's left stump, show their knees the new and wonderful direction and speed of 'backwards, at force.'
Three incapacitated by broken limb. Three to go.
You turn to look at Cesare, and for the briefest of moments, you see war made flesh. A completely neutral look dominates his face as he almost systematically dismantles one opponent, dodging around the others with something bordering on premonition while he performs his art, breathing in through his nose, out through his mouth in that same, serene rhythm. You watch him drive his fist into the floating ribs of a girl, you hear the crack of bone, an open palm strike to the collarbone, taking out upper mobility, before finishing her off with a Hamon-charged fingertip to the temple, putting her out cold on the ground.
... Jesus.
You feel yourself being pulled out of the way of something, and your attention is drawn to your new foe, same as the last, just add knife. It turns out you apparently didn't break his leg hard enough, and he's up again. Not well, definitely hurting, but adrenaline is a miracle worker.
You grab the hand with the knife and let Pearly Gates crush it.
"Put that down before you hurt yourself." You quip as your manifested soul grinds his hand into gravel. He screams, you break his other knee, and bring yours into his temple, finally, finally shutting him up.
... Wow, you're kinda fucked up. "I-I swear this never usually happens to me!" DC 18, Roll: 12. Failure!
You're also, feeling kinda tired. Like, really tired. Like, up for 36 hours hiking non-stop tired.
You look at your hands for a moment and watch Pearly Gates flicker out of existence.
Stand Power: Zero
... Ah.
You suddenly feel sorry for teasing Cesare about 'performance issues.'
You look to your next option, that is, the knife in your last opponent's... you're not sure it qualifies as a hand anymore, but it's got a knife in it, and that's better than nothing. You kneel down, working the knife from between his swelling fingers, and you're now armed.
Can you shank a bitch? "I don't know, can you shank a bitch?" DC15, Roll: 20! Critical Success!
... You can shank a bitch. You can shank a bitch hard.
You watch Cesare manage to slam his heel into his second mook's jaw, snapping his neck to one side before he decides now's a good time to take a nap. The third pulls a knife on him, and before he can even begin to use it, a member of the Goon Squad materialises, pulling a monkey wrench as it does and slamming it into the side of the guy's calf, sweeping his leg out from under him and leaving him screaming.
"Ey, c'mon! You don't bring a knife to a fistfight!" Says the Stand wielding a monkey wrench.
"Oh for fuck's sake-" You hear Wallet Douche say, having stayed out of this long enough to get annoyed at his mooks not actually being able to take you down. He goes for you first, pulling a set of knuckles out of his hoodie pocket, and you genuinely begin to steel yourself to shank a bitch, but Cesare intervenes before you have to make that decision. "Who said chivalry's dead?" DC 10, Roll: 15. Major Success!
Almost... daintily, really, Cesare plants his foot fully on Wallet Douche's chest, and before he can really react to that, somehow turns that gentle planting of sole to chest into a brutal stomp that leaves him on one knee, foot still firmly planted on Wallet Douche's chest.
It's suddenly very quiet. Cesare lets out a deep breath, and kind of shifts his weight off Wallet Douche, letting him wheeze a breath in.
"... You gonna get up, or can I go and talk to my friend without breaking your legs first? Because honestly, it's up to her exactly how much more damage you take." He leans in real close, knee almost level with his ribcage as he gets as close to his prey's ear as he can. "But I've heard things about you, in particular, man, nasty things. Nasty enough that it's a goddamn shame it's up to her, in my honest opinion."
You can hear that his teeth are gritted, and the genuine fear in Wallet Douche's eyes. He begins shaking his head vigorously.
"Wonderful!" Cesare says as cheerily as he can, pushing off him and walking over to you. "Well? What do we do with him?"
"What?"
"I wasn't kidding when I said it was up to you. I can rough him up a little more, or if you feel like finishing the job yourself...?"
... What.. do you want to do?
Health: 85/100- Bruises, extreme fatigue caused by overuse of Stand in ways it was never meant to be.
Stand Power: 0/120. Tank's empty, love. (Roll 1d20 for Recovery: Manifestation/Powers unlocked at 5, Violent Actions at 10, Stand Rush at 15.)
(Stand Recovery Roll: 17! Stand Rush unlocked!)
[] 「PEARLY GATES」- Man, you're feeling better already. Better enough that you can already feel Pearly Gates scraping at the door to get out and start beating this guy senseless.
[] Dirty Work Is For Other People- Let Cesare do the deed. He seems... like he could use the catharsis. And, he has a Stand left.
[] When In Doubt, Mon-o-logue- You can already feel some of the fatigue lifting. If you can keep him down and talking for a minute or two, you should be able to use Pearly Gates to finish the job.
-[] ... What about? (MANDATORY SUB-OPTION)
[] Now This Is A Knoife- You have a knife. Give him the knife. At force. Somewhere it won't kill him. You know, after you rough him up a little.
[] Just Walk- He's not worth it. Just walk.
[] Write-In
Adhoc vote count started by Prok on Jul 10, 2017 at 1:22 PM, finished with 435 posts and 4 votes.
[X] Now This Is A Knoife- You have a knife. Give him the knife. At force. Somewhere it won't kill him. You know, after you rough him up a little.
[X] Punch him. Just, punch him. Letting Cesare do it, or using a knife against a clearly defeated opponent...it rubs you the wrong way. So just punch him until he loses unconsciousness, or start begging you to stop. That should work.
[X] Punch him. Just, punch him. Letting Cesare do it, or using a knife against a clearly defeated opponent...it rubs you the wrong way. So just punch him until he loses unconsciousness, or start begging you to stop. That should work.
[X] Punch him. Just, punch him. Letting Cesare do it, or using a knife against a clearly defeated opponent...it rubs you the wrong way. So just punch him until he loses unconsciousness, or start begging you to stop. That should work.
Also, we ran out of Stand Power really fast. Really, really fast. If that's how fast we run out against mooks, it makes me wonder how Jotaro and Kakyoin fought without both immediately passing out. I guess we'll probably get better with practice, though.
Also also, I'm at least 80% sure that the mob boss with the stone mask is Giorno.
[X] Dirty Work Is For Other People- Let Cesare do the deed. He seems... like he could use the catharsis. And, he has a Stand left.
Also, we ran out of Stand Power really fast. Really, really fast. If that's how fast we run out against mooks, it makes me wonder how Jotaro and Kakyoin fought without both immediately passing out. I guess we'll probably get better with practice, though.
Also also, I'm at least 80% sure that the mob boss with the stone mask is Giorno.
[X] Dirty Work Is For Other People- Let Cesare do the deed. He seems... like he could use the catharsis. And, he has a Stand left.
The reason you ran out so quickly is because you, one, used Pearly Gates in a way she was never really meant to be used, and two, you barely succeeded one roll and outright failed another, which only compounded the sheer drain caused by partially manifesting her for an entire fight.
Stands have one specific way in which they're meant to be used. If you use them in exactly that way, you'll pretty much never run out of Stand Power, because you're using it in the most efficient way possible. The further from that "perfect use" you get, the more Stand Power drains away- for example, Polnareff and Avdol shrinking their Stands down to a cellular level takes more effort out of them than it did for Steely Dan, because his Stand was already that size.
The full-body, full size manifestation is the path of least resistance. Anything else just leaves you with less power to use at the end point.
... Wait, is this the quest I need to close tonight?
Uh. Ok lemme think I did Pyres yesterday I think and Hold It In is today, I think... is it? I mean it says I posted the last one yesterday- no wait that was after midnight...
... Yeah yeah ok yeah, this is the one I need to close tonight!
Votes are closed! Shanking a bitch wins! Update will be up tomorrow! The schedule is fine! Everything is on time! I should, probably write it down!
... I mean, I am updating every day. I'm just updating at the wrong end of every day.
|||
At some point in your decision making, you feel whatever reservoir you draw your Stand from gain a small burst of energy, and you feel a little less tired. You feel capable of summoning Pearly Gates again, but you hold off on it. You look over at Wallet Douche and decide this deserves a more....
Personal touch.
You look at the knife in your hand- it's not large, maybe about half the width of your palm in length fully unfolded, but it looks wicked sharp. Small enough that you can probably leave it in his leg and not have him bleed to death.
... Oh God, you're kinda fucked up-
No, no, now is not the time to ponder exactly how fucked up your calmness in shanking someone is. You have later to do that. Now, however, you calmly walk over to your target, Cesare following close behind. True to his word, surprisingly, he hasn't moved an inch. He watches you with obvious disdain, and you wonder for a moment if he's going to try something. Then his gaze drifts to Cesare, and he seems to think better of it. Good. He's learning.
You stare at him for a moment, and he stares back, neither of you saying anything.
"... Welp, I'll leave you two alone while I deal with the conscious ones." Cesare says, most likely unaware how abjectly horrifying that sentence is out of context.
Another moment of silence passes between you and your current nemesis.
"... Well? What the fuck you gotta-" His icebreaker devolves into screaming as you stomp on his fingers.
"I don't remember giving you permission to talk." You say almost blandly. "Now, let's talk about yesterday," you spit between grit teeth, "and how you have become the bane of my existence between then and now."
You lift your foot and drive your toes into his ribs.
"I! SPENT! THREE! HOURS! FEARING, FOR, MY, FUCKING, LIFE, BECAUSE OF A FUCKING WALLET!" You scream at him, punctuating each word with another kick or stomp, ending with a heel driven into his stomach, leaving him to curl up and not quite vomit, but you can hear him retching. You push him onto his back once more, dropping and pinning his arms with your knees, now straddling his chest. "And then, I saw the way you looked at me, judging my body like a piece of meat-"
You bring the knife as close to his eye as you dare, drawing a yelp of fear from him.
"You have ten seconds to tell me what the fuck you were thinking, in detail, or I'll castrate you anyway, you fucking pervert!" You hiss at the poor boy.
At some point, a slightly less unhinged part of your mind points out that you're making a lot of noise.
The rest of your mind tells it to fuck off.
"IWASTHINKINGABOUTHOWBEAUTIFULYOUARE-"
"BULLSHIT!"
"IT'S TRUE!"
Before you can do anything, what he said clicks finally, and you realise that he just called you beautiful.
You, quite rightly, blink in confusion.
"... Continue." You venture.
"I-I-I was- the, the sunlight caught your face and, and I swear my heart skipped a beat because even as beat up as you were-" You bring the knife to his face again. "YOU'REHONESTLYTHEMOSTBEAUTIFULGIRLI'VEEVERSEEN-"
"Shucks, you're making me blush." You say flatly, raising an unconvinced eyebrow.
"It-it's true!" He exclaims, looking to Cesare for a moment. "A-am I wrong, man?"
Oh, this should be good. You look towards Cesare and see him leaning over a thug, still moaning in pain, and pressing two fingers to their temple. Eventually, he realises he's being talked to, and raises his hands to his chest, palms out.
"I ain't got a dog in this race, dude." He says in as neutral a tone as he can manage.
Coward.
... Wait, hold on.
The alley you were in last night was surrounded by buildings, if you remember correctly. And you're pretty sure you do.
... There's no way sunlight could have gotten in to catch your face!
"You're lying out your ass!" You shout accusatorily at him. When he freezes up, you know you have him.
"Wh-what?! No! I'm serious!"
"No you're not, you're just making shit up to try and save your ass! There's no way any kind of sunlight could have gotten into that alley last night, because that entire area's surrounded by buildings!"
He freezes up again, and you feel... surprisingly offended. Like, he goes on about all of this shit about you being the most beautiful girl he's ever met, how his heart skipped a beat, and it was all just flattery?
... Wow, you can't wait to stab him already.
... Wow, you can't believe you just unironically thought that while holding a knife.
"Y-you're kinda cute when you're mad." He says, not even sounding scared anymore. "I-it's the little sneer you have, it wrinkles your nose up, and it's... tha-that's actually super cute, honestly."
If anything, he sounds tired. Like he's lost all hope of getting out of this uninjured. Well, less injured.
You blink, and... realise your nose is actually all wrinkled from sneering.
"I, I don't really know why I haven't noticed that before. And, I know it probably sounds like more flattery, but honestly, it just occurred to me, and I just... god you really are fucking gorgeous." He finishes almost breathily. "Don't wimp out, don't wimp out-" DC 6, Roll: 3. Failure!
... You look Wallet Douche over, and realise he's... not, half-bad looking himself.
Crying shame he's Verdura, honestly. You begin to realise you're... kinda angered out, honestly, and suddenly the idea of stabbing him really doesn't... hold the same appeal.
"... It was just a fucking wallet, man."
"I know."
You flip the knife shut, bringing the handle out to the edge of your fist, held still by your thumb and forefinger. Drive it into the temple, knock him out cold, use Pearly Gates if that doesn't do the job...
"For what it's worth... you're kinda cute too." You blurt out, garnering an odd look from him before you drive the handle into his temple, snapping his head to the side and sending him to the land of nod.
WALLET DOUCHE: RETIRED.
... Why did you say that? Why did you say that?
You hate this prick, he and his cronies beat you half to death, made you fear for your life again not an hour later, and decided to take on you and Cesare as a pack, and why the fuck did you call him cute you honest to the sweet baby Christ boob-
"Gioia?" Cesare asks gingerly, well aware he seems to be stepping on eggshells. "... You cool?"
You take a deep breath, very pointedly ignore how flushed your face feels right now, and get off Wallet Douche.
... Not dwelling on that phrasing for longer than you need to-
"Yeah. I'm cool."
... You don't, really know what to do now. Go home, or-
"Oh, bra-vo!" Says a voice drier than what's left of the Sahara desert and slow-clapping.
You swear you are going to fucking gank a bitch-
You look around for the source, getting your knife out when suddenly Beedle. The abruptness of his appearance is about as abrupt as the end of that sentence, and it takes all of your restraint to not gank him.
"I- no, seriously, you two are artists with those things! So subtle, so efficient- though I have to say, Gioia, partial manifestations take a lot of the wind out your sails! But that bit at the end, all that anger, that rage- I thought I was about to witness a murder!"
You would respond, but you can finally see Black Crown in all its glory.
It... towers over you all. Beedle is not a short man, even hunched over, but it looms behind him, a figure of a black fur coat and hood, the only change in colour being patches of discolouration, where the fur has worn away, and a noose tied tight around where its neck would be, giving the hood an almost bulbous look. A skull resides within the hood, sectioned into thirds along the centres of the eye sockets, each floating independently of the others, covering not two, but dozens of those orange lights that seem to flicker and flit from place to place, dimming and brightening at random, except you can feel your heart palpitating the longer you look at them, just something about them rooting raw fear and anxiety in your mind, and then you look up and see the black crown of Black Crown in all its glory.
It's a jagged thing made of dull metal, ascending far enough to at least double the height of its head, but then you notice the nails, the screws, piercing the hood in places as if it was actually nailed onto its former owner's head. You look at it closer and see...
Scenes, embossed into the metal.
It fades away before you can make any of them out, ending your visual feast of one of the creepier Stands you've seen.
"So!" Beedle says, grabbing your attention. "Who were these lovely chaps then?"
"Er... they're, Verdura mooks- sorry, who are you?" Cesare asks.
"Hm? Oh, sorry, of course you won't recognise me- my name's Beedle. I'm sure you've heard of me, though." He introduces himself, holding out a hand for your friend to shake.
He... eventually takes it, seeming, honestly unsure as to what the hell's happening.
"Excellent. And you are?"
"Oh, uh, I'm Cesare. I'm, a friend of Gioia's." Cesare manages to stumble through an introduction before turning to face you. "So, uh, how can we help you?"
"Well, I'm sure you know the best way you can help me, but first, I'd like to be introduced to anyone else she's given Stands to." Beedle turns to face you. "Ah, I assume you have given other people Stands by now, yes?"
"I've jabbed them, yes, but Cesare and his sister are the only two to show anything so far."
"Hmmmmmm. Well, shall we go and check on the others?"
Shall you?
[] Yeah- it's not even 8 am and you're done for the day. You just wanna go home and curl up in bed. Again. But, you suppose you can suffer Beedle's ministrations for your friends for a while anyway. Maybe he can help you with the fatigue, if you're that desperate for a logical reason to take him home.
[] Nah- You're only just out! Go for a damn walk! Drag Beedle along with you, the fresh air'll do his 111-year-old ass good! Maybe it'll do your ass good!
Before you do, though- anything you wanna do before you leave?
[] KLEP! TO! MANIA!- You have seven Verdura thugs, and by this point, a reputation to uphold. Get looting.
[] Throw The Dog A Bone- Give Wallet Douche his wallet back. You think you can stand summoning it from your nightstand... or is it still in your jeans?
-[] Keep the money- nah, fuck him, you earned that money. He can get the wallet, but the money's yours.
[] Just Go- Nah. You're done here. Just walk, man.
[] Write-in (have some respect for the dead unconscious.)
Adhoc vote count started by Prok on Jul 14, 2017 at 2:48 PM, finished with 445 posts and 4 votes.
[X] Yeah- it's not even 8 am and you're done for the day. You just wanna go home and curl up in bed. Again. But, you suppose you can suffer Beedle's ministrations for your friends for a while anyway. Maybe he can help you with the fatigue, if you're that desperate for a logical reason to take him home. [X] KLEP! TO! MANIA!- You have seven Verdura thugs, and by this point, a reputation to uphold. Get looting.
[X] Yeah- it's not even 8 am and you're done for the day. You just wanna go home and curl up in bed. Again. But, you suppose you can suffer Beedle's ministrations for your friends for a while anyway. Maybe he can help you with the fatigue, if you're that desperate for a logical reason to take him home. [X] KLEP! TO! MANIA!- You have seven Verdura thugs, and by this point, a reputation to uphold. Get looting. [X] Throw The Dog A Bone- Give Wallet Douche his wallet back. You think you can stand summoning it from your nightstand... or is it still in your jeans? -[X] Keep the money- nah, fuck him, you earned that money. He can get the wallet, but the money's yours.
[X] Nah- You're only just out! Go for a damn walk! Drag Beedle along with you, the fresh air'll do his 111-year-old ass good! Maybe it'll do your ass good! -[X] Keep an eye out for stray dogs. [X] KLEP! TO! MANIA!- You have seven Verdura thugs, and by this point, a reputation to uphold. Get looting.
Adhoc vote count started by Prok on Jul 17, 2017 at 1:55 PM, finished with 454 posts and 5 votes.
[X] COFFEEEEE- Aside from grabbing everyone a cup of coffee, which will hopefully already be brewed, you wanna grill Beedle on some stuff. You have burning questions. BURNING QUESTIONS. -[X] Can you provide details on guard rosters or defences of the Alliance base we're going to rob? --[X] On an unrelated note, have you seen any stray dogs wandering around?
[X] Go grab the others- you're at least eighty percent sure either Achille or Finch is up right now. Daria and Vittoria... you'd, you'd give it a couple hours. Point is, go grab someone else to show off to Beedle. Maybe if you're super lucky, Finch'll be coherent enough to tell you what you can do with your loot.
Adhoc vote count started by Prok on Jul 17, 2017 at 1:56 PM, finished with 7 posts and 4 votes.
[X] Yeah- it's not even 8 am and you're done for the day. You just wanna go home and curl up in bed. Again. But, you suppose you can suffer Beedle's ministrations for your friends for a while anyway. Maybe he can help you with the fatigue, if you're that desperate for a logical reason to take him home. [X] KLEP! TO! MANIA!- You have seven Verdura thugs, and by this point, a reputation to uphold. Get looting.
[X] Yeah- it's not even 8 am and you're done for the day. You just wanna go home and curl up in bed. Again. But, you suppose you can suffer Beedle's ministrations for your friends for a while anyway. Maybe he can help you with the fatigue, if you're that desperate for a logical reason to take him home. [X] KLEP! TO! MANIA!- You have seven Verdura thugs, and by this point, a reputation to uphold. Get looting. [X] Throw The Dog A Bone- Give Wallet Douche his wallet back. You think you can stand summoning it from your nightstand... or is it still in your jeans? -[X] Keep the money- nah, fuck him, you earned that money. He can get the wallet, but the money's yours.
[X] Nah- You're only just out! Go for a damn walk! Drag Beedle along with you, the fresh air'll do his 111-year-old ass good! Maybe it'll do your ass good! -[X] Keep an eye out for stray dogs. [X] KLEP! TO! MANIA!- You have seven Verdura thugs, and by this point, a reputation to uphold. Get looting.
[X] Yeah- it's not even 8 am and you're done for the day. You just wanna go home and curl up in bed. Again. But, you suppose you can suffer Beedle's ministrations for your friends for a while anyway. Maybe he can help you with the fatigue, if you're that desperate for a logical reason to take him home.
[X] KLEP! TO! MANIA!- You have seven Verdura thugs, and by this point, a reputation to uphold. Get looting.
Might as well get some help with Stands... and might as well practice our looting skills. Giola will be needing those when the time comes for her to be Shepard...
[X] Yeah- it's not even 8 am and you're done for the day. You just wanna go home and curl up in bed. Again. But, you suppose you can suffer Beedle's ministrations for your friends for a while anyway. Maybe he can help you with the fatigue, if you're that desperate for a logical reason to take him home.
[X] KLEP! TO! MANIA!- You have seven Verdura thugs, and by this point, a reputation to uphold. Get looting.
[X] Yeah- it's not even 8 am and you're done for the day. You just wanna go home and curl up in bed. Again. But, you suppose you can suffer Beedle's ministrations for your friends for a while anyway. Maybe he can help you with the fatigue, if you're that desperate for a logical reason to take him home.
[X] KLEP! TO! MANIA!- You have seven Verdura thugs, and by this point, a reputation to uphold. Get looting. [X] Throw The Dog A Bone- Give Wallet Douche his wallet back. You think you can stand summoning it from your nightstand... or is it still in your jeans?
-[X] Keep the money- nah, fuck him, you earned that money. He can get the wallet, but the money's yours.
I've got to say, that depiction of ⌈Black Crown⌋was extremely vivid, and I really like the imagery it has going on, something like... an ancient corpse possessed by something alien. You can tell it's been around the block a few times, even if that's how it originally looked.
[X] Nah- You're only just out! Go for a damn walk! Drag Beedle along with you, the fresh air'll do his 111-year-old ass good! Maybe it'll do your ass good!
-[X] Keep an eye out for stray dogs.
[X] KLEP! TO! MANIA!- You have seven Verdura thugs, and by this point, a reputation to uphold. Get looting.
I've got to say, that depiction of ⌈Black Crown⌋was extremely vivid, and I really like the imagery it has going on, something like... an ancient corpse possessed by something alien. You can tell it's been around the block a few times, even if that's how it originally looked.
'But Enyis knew the flame was the only light that would guide him from the Pit, the only light that would allow him to see his beloved safe and sound again. For that chance, the world could be put to the pyre for all he cared.'
|||
You decide that, more than anything else, even though it's not even 8 am yet, you don't think, but you just wanna go home and curl up in your bed, damn your sleep cycle. But... you guess you should talk with Beedle.
Eh. You'll figure it out when you get there. For now, though... you can hear them. Calling to you. Wishing to be freed from their denim prisons. Crying out to be liberated from the weights of paper and metal and plastic.
Their wallets call to you. Their phones sing their siren song. 'Take us Gioia, we wanna go with you!'
You're exaggerating, of course, adrenaline and, possibly a mild sugar rush at this point, keeping the mental filter on the backburner, but it still raises a good point. All this bullshit over a wallet. Why not... cultivate something of a reputation?
What all this translates to, of course, is Pearly Gates appearing, and using her portals to search for valuables, wallets, phones, jewellery, watches- all liberated, all taken, all oh jeez-
You find yourself juggling wallets, phones, jewellery, watches, Pearly Gates throwing it in your general direction faster than you can stuff it in your hoodie's pockets, but you somehow manage. Once your pockets and the elastic on them is well and truly ruined, she stops, fading away.
That... was somehow so much less straining on you compared to the partial manifestation you had going on during the fight. It seems what Beedle's saying has some merit to it. You know you shouldn't be so surprised, he is the most learned person on the subject of Stands you've ever met, but you didn't expect the change to be so... pronounced. You barely felt any kind of drain using your Stand like that.
... Well, good to know.
You turn back to the guys and see a mix of concern and surprise from each of them. Cesare seems more concerned than surprised, and Beedle is just gawping like a dead fish at the spectacle.
"Uh... Gioia? What are you doing?" Cesare ventures.
"What? All this shit happened over a wallet. Feels like I got a reputation to cultivate at this point."
"... You look like a kleptomaniac."
You look down at your pockets, bulging with various valuables, and come to the conclusion that... you, probably are a bit of a kleptomaniac, honestly. Is it kleptomania if you're stealing stuff after beating up the people you're stealing from? Isn't that just a mugging?
"Er, if I may jump in-" Beedle interrupts before you can say anything, "Gioia, what... is your Stand?"
You find a smile tugging at your lips, the idea of showing off your Stand to your new boss actually... kind of exciting. Like, he's the one guy who can tell you, anything about Stands, so seeing his dissection of yours should be interesting.
「Pearly Gates.」
Your soul manifests, and you watch Beedle look it over with a critical eye.
"It's... surprisingly minimalistic for a Stand. Quite a lot of them are a more, ah bells, whistles and the kitchen sink too, kind of design. What does it do?"
... Oh. You, didn't expect a design critique, but, whatever.
"It creates portals. I don't know the maximum range, but it got me home last night from... maybe half a kilometre, bit more away? Aside from that, the crystal part of its head lets me see the other side of the portal."
Beedle returns to gawping.
"... I see. That's... that's very..."
You see Black Crown flicker into existence again, bent close to Beedle's ear, whispering something to him.
.חסד .דעת .גבורה. מלכות
"... Very interesting, yes." He says, sounding somewhat distracted before Black Crown fades again and he seems to start paying attention to you. Again.
... You wonder what that was about.
"Well, that's very good, for a burgeoning thief in training! As you just proved." He finishes somewhat awkwardly. "So, ah, aside from your friend here, and his sister, how many other people have you given Stands?"
For some reason, the number takes a moment to come, yet more evidence of your need to curl up in a ball and take a nap, but you eventually answer three.
"So six in total? Good, good number. Six is a good number for Stand users. Even numbers in general are- ah, I'm rambling. So! Why don't you, ah, create a portal and we can go meet the others, hm?"
Normally, you would try and object, the idea of just bringing someone home with you somewhat... unpalatable, Achille doesn't enjoy unexpected visitors, but dammit you could do with some fresh coffee, and either he or Finch has probably brewed a fresh pot and that sounds amazing-
You stop drooling at the idea of coffee to go with your stick of cookie long enough to...
... Realise you've lost the mostaccioli.
Um. You look around, wondering if you'd dropped it, in which case you're gonna be pissed-
"Looking for something?" Beedle asks.
"Yeah, my breakfast. You seen about three-quarters of a stick of mostaccioli around here?"
Now it's his turn to grin, and Black Crown appears once more. Raising two bony hands, it snatches something out of the air, and suddenly your sweet tooth's new best friend is brought out of the air, alongside Cesare's sfogliatelle, both in pristine condition bar what harm you've done to it yourself. It hands them off to Beedle, who hands them off to Cesare.
"You both dropped them in the fight, and I managed to, ah, retrieve them before any damage could be done."
... Convenient. You say your thanks, as does Cesare, and then you create your portal, leading them through to your house.
To your home.
|||
"... I think I remember when this place was a hotel."
"Really?" Cesare asks.
"Maybe. Naples wasn't my normal stomping ground when I came to Italy. But this... the red-walled hotel on Via Pontano, rooftop garden- I swear I've been here before... hmph. It'll come back to me eventually." Beedle says, waving the subject away for the moment.
Loot get!
Three (3) Men's Watches, Generic Brand(s)- thick, chunky faces, thin leather bands, except for one that seems to just have chunks of iron stapled together for a band, they're not Rolexes, but they're good watches.
Six (6) Wallets- Hell yeah! More wallets! Just... gotta go through them-
- TOTAL MONEY GAINED: 254,500 ITL, (150 US Dollars, 38 Credits) NEW TOTAL: 356,200 ITL (210 US Dollars, 53 Credits)
Seven (7) Smartphones, (Condition Range: Medium-Great)- Yeah, they're locked, probably, but you know there's ways around that. Unlock them, see if there's anything worth saving onto a hard drive, wipe the buggers, sell 'em on. Easy money.
Six (6) Pieces of Jewellery- Earring, rings, necklaces- these guys were pretty decked out. You might not get much for them, but money's money.
One (1) pair of knuckledusters- yoink. (Knuckledusters equipped. You feel tougher already.)
So! What now?
[] Go grab the others- you're at least eighty percent sure either Achille or Finch is up right now. Daria and Vittoria... you'd, you'd give it a couple hours. Point is, go grab someone else to show off to Beedle. Maybe if you're super lucky, Finch'll be coherent enough to tell you what you can do with your loot.
[] COFFEEEEE- Aside from grabbing everyone a cup of coffee, which will hopefully already be brewed, you wanna grill Beedle on some stuff. You have burning questions. BURNING QUESTIONS.
-[] What comes to mind? (Write-in)
[] (Write-in)
Adhoc vote count started by Prok on Jul 17, 2017 at 1:57 PM, finished with 454 posts and 5 votes.
[X] COFFEEEEE- Aside from grabbing everyone a cup of coffee, which will hopefully already be brewed, you wanna grill Beedle on some stuff. You have burning questions. BURNING QUESTIONS. -[X] Can you provide details on guard rosters or defences of the Alliance base we're going to rob? --[X] On an unrelated note, have you seen any stray dogs wandering around?
[X] Go grab the others- you're at least eighty percent sure either Achille or Finch is up right now. Daria and Vittoria... you'd, you'd give it a couple hours. Point is, go grab someone else to show off to Beedle. Maybe if you're super lucky, Finch'll be coherent enough to tell you what you can do with your loot.
[X] COFFEEEEE- Aside from grabbing everyone a cup of coffee, which will hopefully already be brewed, you wanna grill Beedle on some stuff. You have burning questions. BURNING QUESTIONS.
-[X] Can you provide details on guard rosters or defences of the Alliance base we're going to rob?
--[X] On an unrelated note, have you seen any stray dogs wandering around?
I refuse to leave Naples without finding Terrence the Perfect Roll Irish Setter.
Yeah, it's pretty pathetic, but what did you expect six 15-17-year-olds to carry on them? And on top of that, Lire were/are worth pretty much bugger all when converted to dollars, and since the USD:GC rate is currently 4:1...
Yeah. Also, in case anyone is curious about how I managed to end up converting a defunct currency to a fictional currency by way of the US dollar- a combination of this website, and then...
Now, bear with me here. Most of the model ships in Mass Effect 2 cost 500 Credits. A top-tier model ship, today, costs anywhere between 800 and 3,000 pounds, so I went for a median- let's say 1,700 a pop. Currently, the pound is worth 1.3 dollars, fucking ouch, which works out to $2,225.64.
Divide by 500, round down for the sake of quick calculation, and you get a 1:4 ratio, not accounting for inflation, interest rates, any kind of debt that might have been accrued, terms of trade, or political stability, because honestly, I have to draw a line somewhere, and I'm choosing to draw it at becoming a fantasy stock broker.
