[IC] JOJO'S BIZARRE ADVENTURE: CHRONO'S CURSE! - NO LONGER ACCEPTING

[Commodore Robot]

Izayoi Grand Hospital Goichi

"Man, that guy sure was full of himself." Goichi grumbled. Though he did kind of have a point. Besides himself nobody in this room really looked like they were much good in a fight, but he's been in enough scraps to know to never underestimate somebody based on looks.

"Well I think some introductions are in order. My name is Ramika Jamison. My interests include old Westerns and first-person shooters. I'm Okinawa born 'n raised, and I've lived in Izayoi City all my life. My dad's name is Wild Bill Jamison. It's a pleasure to meet y'all,"

"Nice to meet you Ramika, name's Goichi Goethe. Friends on occasion call me Gogo for short, but I'm sure as hell not gonna force it. I was born in Dusseldorf, but I moved to Izayoi with my mom to be closer to her family when I was ten. Dad is the famed archaeologist Gustav Goethe. Formerly a student at Izayoi U but I graduated this past season with a degree in Egyptology, so I may as well have not gone to school at all. I like ancient Egypt and I'm a massive sucker for Toku shows like Kamen Rider. I also tend to get into a lot of fights if I think somebody is getting picked on. That's actually how I ended up here now that I think about it. I have a three hundred kilogram dead-lift and uh... I'm starting to ramble right now but those seem to cover the basics. How about the rest of you?" He gestured around the room to the others who had yet to speak.

[Kafka Komedy]

Izayoi Grand Hospital - Yosuke Tsukino

Yoyo gasped a little as he looked down his shirt to reveal that, like the others, his wound was gone! Biologically, that was impossible. The human body couldn't repair wounds this fast, and there wasn't even a scar to prove he had been hurt. Now he was going to have a really hard time explaining this to his parents! And apparently they were the only one in the hospital too? But that didn't matter, Xander (which, for the record, was a super dumb and edgy name.) had started spouting off.

Apparently, there was a man at Chromatus tower when this all happened. It seemed he was the villain they were looking for, and they were supposed to meet there at about eight in the morning, which, frankly, was a little early for Yoyo, but whatever. Time waits for no man! Then he walked out. Douche.

He sighed and shook his head as Xander left. He could have, like, I dunno, given them some contact information? Told them a little more about the man, maybe a few defining features? But no, he had to be all cool and leave with the last words. He didn't look forward to working together. He did bring up a good point though, Yoyo did actually have things to lose. His life, for one, and everything that came with it. His mother, sister, the remainder of his friends, and his future. It was a weighty choice, and Yoyo was sure this path lead to something bad. But if he didn't do it, than who would? Besides, luck seemed to be on his side, what with the surviving and all that.

Ram interrupted him from his thoughts as she offered a hand and introduced herself. Yeah, they hadn't really done that yet, had they? Ram seemed okay, though she inflected her voice a bit weird... Ah well, he was proven wrong about Gibson, he was sure Ram would be fine. Everybody had their quirks, Yoyo included. He shook her hand before clearing his throat and introducing himself as well. "Hm. Not a bad idea. I'm Yosuke Tsukino, Son of Daisuke Tsukino, and Youko Hanamura. I've moved so much I've forgotten my "Home Town", but currently I live in Izayoi, and consider myself an official Izayoi citizen. I like video games and arcades. Like, a lot. I also go on some image boards too, and I'm currently following Killer X Killer." He said, deftly avoiding the fact that Daisuke Tsukino was long gone from his life. He hoped the people here liked Killer X Killer. The plot was light, sure, but hey, the action was pretty damn good! "Oh, and does everyone here have a cellphone? I'd like to keep in contact." Yoyo suggested, pulling out his own flip phone and creating a new contact.

[The_written_John]

Izayoi Grand Hospital - Gibson Ves Hawkin

Gibson frowned at Xander as he gave as little information as possible and practically abandoned them for the meantime. What was his deal? If someone attacked them, it wouldn't exactly be very safe to go out alone! Regardless, before Gibson could stop him, the edgy angsy anti hero had already left their presence, and all Gibson could do was sigh. Gibson also gazed at himself, and of course, like everyone else possessed no wounds or injuries, and his pains and aches had seemed to all but disappear. Once he saw everyone else starting to give out their own little introductions, Gibson began to do the same.

"As for me, as you know my names Gibson Ves Hawkin. I'm actually a resident of Izayoi and... Well I don't know if my past is exactly important right now... But... I guess if everyone else is talking i'l chime in too. I'm a bit of a hopeless romantic and ... Not a very famous novelist. Well, I'm trying to become a novelist but, nobody seems to really be into books today, it's all Manga and Television...! I'm not very smart, I love to get to know others and I like to stand out! Hence the... Attention drawing garments..."

YoYo then made the idea that they should try to keep in contact with eachother. Gibson didn't even argue and immediately swiped out a very curious pink smartphone with a cutesy sticker on the back of a little fat siamese cat, the words "Nya" Over it. Gibson gave out his contact information openly to the group while also jotting down in his contacts anyone else who would speak up about their phone numbers or has already done so.

"And for the record guys. It's true we could lose a lot doing this... Looking for whoever is behind... whatever just happened. But to be honest, I don't think i'd be able to keep living if something like this could happen again... Even if I hardly understand what's going on, i'm still going to risk avenging YoYo's friend. I don't know, i'm an idiot like that I guess...!"

Gibson smiled sheepishly and blushed, but before the others could speak he spoke up again.

"I say we head out of the hospital before anyone asks any questions, I'd rather we try and find out what's going on without alerting the police. I know that seems dodgy, but think about it, does anyone here think the police would know jack and or all shit about everything freezing in place followed by unexplained... death? Course not, they'll probably think we're nuts...! If everyone's feeling... better... as much as we can be... We should probably get some fresh air and stick close by, for safety while we search the tower"

[Gentlemanvaultboy]

Izayoi Grand Hospital - James Maury

James tipped his hat off his head and swished it through the air in a sweeping bow before speaking. "My names is James Maury." He said, straitening back up. "I'm a children entertainer of some renown, thought looking around I doubt any of you are in the correct age bracket for Mr. Maury's Worldwide Roundabout. I travel the world bringing different lives and experiences to the attention of developing minds. I consider myself a citizen of the world, and dabble in this and that when I'm not working. Lately I've taken a large interest in puppetry, and I would be honored to share my contact information." With that he whipped out his own cell phone and took down any that was shared while giving his own.

"And with that all buttoned up, I believe Mr. Ves Hawkins has had an excellent idea. Fresh air has never done anyone any harm. Perhaps take some time to slow down and really consider things." The man looked around the room the same way someone looks at a lake before diving it, trying to figure out whether it was going to be too cold. Then he seemly came to a resolution, and voiced his idea. "Such as whether or not there is a 'perpetrator' to exact justice on. Yes, Mr. Xandor said he saw 'someone' at the tower. A man. But is that so unusual for a building of such significance? A local oddity of its magnitude must surly see many visitors each day."

He pauses, fiddling with the brim of his hat while trying to think of how to continue. "What I mean to say is that we do not have a full understanding of the situation. We've seen nothing to indicate that what occurred wasn't just some strange 'phenomenon' and it's dangerous to draw the conclusion that there must be a responsible party in the wake of a great tragedy, while feeling are running hot."

[Turboshitter]

Izayoi Grand Hospital - Ram Jam

"Nice to meet you Ramika, name's Goichi Goethe. Friends on occasion call me Gogo for short, but I'm sure as hell not gonna force it. I was born in Dusseldorf, but I moved to Izayoi with my mom to be closer to her family when I was ten. Dad is the famed archaeologist Gustav Goethe. Formerly a student at Izayoi U but I graduated this past season with a degree in Egyptology, so I may as well have not gone to school at all. I like ancient Egypt and I'm a massive sucker for Toku shows like Kamen Rider. I also tend to get into a lot of fights if I think somebody is getting picked on. That's actually how I ended up here now that I think about it. I have a three hundred kilogram dead-lift and uh... I'm starting to ramble right now but those seem to cover the basics. How about the rest of you?"

Ramika shook her hands back and forth. "You don't need to call me Ramika. Really, it's been so long since anyone's called me that that it feels kinda weird. My friends call me Ram Jam, and so does my dad. It's all I go by these days," she explained. "Your friends call you 'Gogo' though? Isn't that gonna be easy to confuse with Yoyo? My dad taught me how to fight too. He told me it was to protect myself in case I ever got picked on, but now it gets me into trouble more often than it gets me out..."

That's when Gibson and Mr. Maury spoke up, and they made a lot of good points. It was true they had a lot to lose poking their noses into this, but...

"Mr. Maury, can I be frank? Someone attacked us. Things like this, they don't happen in nature. There was no explosion, no earthquake, no collateral damage to the environment. I don't know about you, but it felt like time was just frozen, like for a second I was completely paralyzed before I was attacked and blacked out. Other people just died. That's a statement nobody should take lightly, and not just because it's a tragedy. I meant it literally. For all we know, they just died, and we don't know how or why. We owe it to them to find out, because there was clearly a perpetrator in this attack. There's no other explanation for what happened to us, at least not one that makes any logical sense. There's an outlaw in our town, and..." Ramika paused. "And he's doing things that I don't know what they are. I don't understand. Why we survived, why we feel this pain when our bodies show no sign of injury. It's not normal. But I want to find out. I want to find out why Yukari had to die and how we're going to stop it from happening again. We're the only living witnesses to the attack. That means that unless he strikes again, the police aren't going to catch this guy. It's up to us to get to the bottom of this."

Ram Jam smiled awkwardly in spite of herself. "It's kind of like an adventure, right? The righteous vigilantes forming a posse to hunt down an elusive outlaw and get to the bottom of his sinister schemes! I'd be lying if I said part of me wasn't excited. But I'm also sad, and kind of scared. But that doesn't mean we can just walk away!"

[McFazzer]

Izayoi Grand Hospital - Tommy Sparks

"...Just before this happened, I saw someone at the top of Chromatus Tower. I'm certain that man was behind this. I'm going to go home and recuperate, then return to Chromatus Tower at 8 AM. Maybe you'll be there."

Wow, does he have to practice in a mirror acting like a jackass? Or was he just born like that? Before Tommy could call the jerk out on his behaviour his favourite saviour spoke up.

"Well I think some introductions are in order. My name is Ramika Jamison. My interests include old Westerns and first-person shooters. I'm Okinawa born 'n raised, and I've lived in Izayoi City all my life. My dad's name is Wild Bill Jamison. It's a pleasure to meet y'all,"

While everyone was making their introductions, the big guy was some kind of Egypt lover, the YoYo was asking for phone numbers and Rocky Horror was, in stark contrast to his appearance, was a shy guy and the old guy was some kind of kiddy Television star. Tommy was more reserved about all this introducing, his mother didn't raise a fool.

"Hi, I'm Tommy. I like lemonade, the passion fruit drink I found, pinball and that's all you'll get. No life story from me, sorry. Didn't your parents teach you guys about 'stranger danger'? Mine did, that's basic stuff, like... rule number one, right! Also, to be fair, you're all pretty strange; Egypt, YoYo, Rocky Horror and TV. Not you Rammy, you're pretty great and I'd hate to be more cynical, because walking away does seem like a jerk move, but everyone is wondering about why we should we be looking into this. What about the what. What are we going to do?"

Pausing slightly so his words sunk in, Tommy looked up at Rammy "Are we gonna punch the guy who did this? Why? Is it the right thing to do? A punch to the face and a kick to the nuts? What does that accomplish? Does that stop them? Does it make everyone come back? Also, since they were able to attack an entire city at the same time, wouldn't they be... well... out of our league? What's stopping them from trying again?"

[Kafka Komedy]

Izayoi Grand Hospital - Yosuke Tsukino

Yoyo hummed silently as he took down Gibson and James' numbers. It was cool, having down a celebrity's real cellphone number, and, well, just making friends in general, he guessed? He knew it wasn't gonna last one way or another, but even the temporary comradery was pretty cool. There was a silver lining in all this, just slightly.

Gibson suggested getting outta here without answering any questions or the such, an idea that wasn't exactly bad, considering they were probably dealing with someone who the law wouldn't even glance at. He also suggested sticking together until they got to the tower, but Yoyo didn't want to slow them down, and he had a stop to make.

Yoyo was confused as to why James thought there wasn't a perpetrator, and Ram said all there was to say on the matter really. It was there duty to go out and find the man responsible, and end whatever he was doing. Because there had to be a man responsible. He was using some odd machine or something, maybe even something supernatural, and it was obvious to everyone. Nature doesn't just kill some people, and let others live arbitrarily. The world just wasn't that cruel.

Tommy appeared to not see things his way. He called Yoyo weird! And also insinuated that they maybe shouldn't try to stop the goddamn killer! What an asshole! Yoyo huffed angrily, and explained to Tommy why they had to go after the man at Chromatus. "Dude, we're stopping them from going again. As in, we're going to go up there, and wreck him before he can do that again. A-and, you don't know that the people don't come back! This is some weirdo magic-y shit, okay? If I can kill him before he does that damn trick again, well, it'll stop any more people from getting killed, and it might do some other stuff too. Besides, it's not like I don't have a plan... Which reminds me, I'm going to need to split off from you guys when we get going. I need to grab some crap from my place."

[The_written_John]

Izayoi Grand Hospital - Gibson Ves Hawkin

"Then it seems we're all in agreement then... Alright... If you all want to prepare yourselves... Do so now, i'm going to head straight for the tower, but go no further... Try not to draw attention to yourselves, we've no idea what to prepare for. If we're lucky, whoever did this doesn't think we're alive... So we may have the element of surprise!"

What else could Gibson say? Everyone seemed to want to help out, and with everyone having gotten most of eac hothers cell numbers, it wouldn't be hard to get in contact with someone else in the group, so with that, Gibson bowed respectfully and walked carefully out of the room, but before leaving he turned to the group still inside the room.

"If any of you wish to accompany me, simply follow. I won't demand you come along, though... Company would be nice, I suppose" He spoke, his last words a little sorrowful before making his way out of the hospital as casually as possible and without alerting the presence of the nurses close by.

Izayoi - Near Main Street - Gibson Ves Hawkin

With Gibson now out into the streets, he noticed that in the streets news crews had already swarmed the city, talking about the recent murders, with miles of police tape sectioning off some of the major areas where bodies were unusually high. As Gibson walked on, he heard one of the news reporters talking.

"And here I am standing on main street where accounts of over 500 total deaths have occurred and counting! While it may be unknown to their deaths so far, people speculate that the heat gathered from the cities chrome buildings which happen to be solar powered, may be a contributing factor to the deaths! Heatstroke is now a common occurrence, however this is just a theory, members of the public are advised to report anything suspicious to the police on a moments notice, and that peace and order will be brought to Izayoi shortly!"

Gibson stopped in his tracks as he looked toward the crime scene on the mainstreet of Izayoi, bodybags practically littered it, with chalk marks artistically lining like dominoes down the mile long strip. But Gibson couldn't believe what he heard.

"Five hundred... on main street... alone? Hows... that... possible?"

[Penultimate_Pi]

Izayoi City Plaza - Xander Johannes

TIME: 6:31 AM
DATE: August 19

"-residents local and from abound are confused and concerned as to the cause of these deaths. Some officials have stated that the likely cause is the extreme summer weather combined with the reflective surfaces of office buildings and solar panels. These factors combined are capable of easily causing fatal heatstroke, even through protective covering. Some people claim to have witnessed the events of these deaths disagree, and instead reference a supernatural cause-"

Xander only paused for a few moments to overhear the news broadcast from the wall-mounted television. Not even a full day had passed and there was already much concern and controversy over what exactly happened that moment at noon yesterday. The most sensible source cited was the abundance of hot weather and reflective surfaces inciting fatal heatstroke; regardless of the truth, citizens were encouraged to not remain in open areas for long periods of time, and to stay protected and hydrated at all times. Never mind the fact that many people were privy to do that anyways.

The victim continued on his way, bags of chilled foodstuff in each hand, trying to remain low profile. It was unclear how many people were aware that he was a survivor of this sudden influx of death; among those people could be the culprit, that mysterious voice atop Chromatus Tower. He swore every so often he could hear an echo of that man gone laughing mad, the insane cackling drifting on the wind...

Xander shook his head and redoubled his pace. He needed to get home and fix himself up. And after that... what was he thinking!? This person somehow racked up a death toll in the thousands in a split second. No matter what, Xander was damn lucky to be alive; so why was he trying to challenge his life again by trying to track down this person? Any other sensible man might do well to go home, resume life as best as possible, and steer clear of Chromatus Tower for the rest of his days.

He could dish out the truth like punches and kicks, but how well was he actually able to take it himself? Xander shook his head again and sighed. Maybe he was more scarred than that disappearing wound let on. "I must be going damn crazy," he mumbled, a few blocks away from his small condo.