JoJoNights

“What is the meaning of this?” Mona Lisa almost growled, her entire body tense. Of course, Mai Tai said she was here for work, and she may have meant working for the President, but why on Earth was she here right now? “Please, don’t just stand there, signora Regio,” Pina Colada smiled, gesturing to the armchair. Mona Lisa remained standing. “Well, suit yourself,” Pina Colada shrugged. “I suppose you want to know why I invited you. That’s more than reasonable. Tell me, signora Regio… What do you know about your father?” Mona Lisa’s hands balled into fists, painted nails digging into soft skin. “Nothing. And it’s none of your business.” “I’m afraid…” Mai Tai spoke, “… that it is. Or, rather, that this information is crucial in understanding the situation. Your father’s name is… was… Dio Brando. He was a very bad man”. “Closer to the point.” “Even though years have passed since his demise, every year there are new unpleasant and dangerous incidents related to him and his… legacy. We couldn’t help but be concerned about the possibility of such things happening in your vicinity, if I may phrase it that way.” The words hit Mona Lisa with incredible clarity. She couldn’t know that, but the glare she gave Mai Tai was the most hateful the other woman has ever seen. And yet, she remained calm, a sympathetic look on her face. Mona Lisa wanted to carve that face off the woman’s skull. “You are one of them. The stalkers,” she managed to say, no longer wanting to escape. “I represent the organization called the Speedwagon Foundation,” Mai Tai explained apologetically. “Aside from the other, less questionable causes, it investigates Stand users and unusual activities that involve them. Your father, Dio, was such a great threat that everything related to him is carefully observed…” “Carefully observed?” Mona Lisa whispered menacingly. “My life is hell and you call that careful observation? You’re telling me that I spent my childhood, my youth, my entire life in a fucking panopticon, punished for a crime I’ve never committed, and then you have the audacity to pretend it was no big deal?!” “Please, signora Regio, you need to calm down…” Pina Colada spoke, smiling, and it was that smile that broke the back of Mona Lisa’s patience’s camel. “I will calm down when you go down.” The magenta glow radiating from her started taking shape, turning into a female silhouette. Spikes adorned its limbs, all four ending with sharp, crab claw-like heels. In less than a second, the glow turned into a Stand right in front of her, emotionless, much unlike its user. “Let us all remain civil…” Pina Colada started speaking again, and that’s when the Stand lunged forward along with Mona Lisa. “It’s…” the Stand yelled out, a kick of pointy stilettos aimed at Pina Colada, “…Gimme More!” Pina Colada jumped to the side with the grace of a circus acrobat. And in a blink of an eye both she and Mai Tai disappeared. Mona Lisa looked around, angry and nervous at the same time. Pina Colada’s drink was on the floor, her desk — a blurred image of itself. Gimme More mirrored its wielder’s motions, pointy spike-nose turning left and right like a broken compass’ pointer. The room was silent. “They couldn’t have disappeared…” Mona Lisa mumbled. “They are too interested in me for that.” Suddenly, a weird noise was heard, gurgling like a jacuzzi or something of that kind. Gimme More turned towards the source of the sound, followed by its user. What weirded Mona Lisa the most was that the sound was seemingly coming from an empty space right in the middle of the cabinet. “Now, one of your Stands makes things disappear…” Mona Lisa thought to herself, eyeing the center of the room with suspicion, Gimme More ready to defend her. “So the second one… must have a Stand that makes this noise. But what could it do?” Then, out of nowhere, a small pink bubble appeared right in the middle of the room, reminiscent of those old-fashioned round gumballs from the machine. Slowly, without any acceleration, it started flying towards Mona Lisa. “So that’s what it looks like… But what does it do?” Mona Lisa mumbled. The bubble immediately accelerated, seemingly reacting to the sound. “Gimme-e… Moru-moru-moru!” With a low-pitched battle cry, Gimme More lunged forward, kicking the bubble. The bright pink rubber started inflating with the first blow, but the second one turned it blurry and pale. The third blow sent it flying back to the center of the room. Once it flew to its original position, Mona Lisa smirked, commanding Gimme More to return it to the usual state. With a splash, the inflated bubble exploded, leaving pink goo on the invisible wall it flew out of. “So Stands can touch it, but I can’t? Fun ability,” Mona Lisa chuckled and immediately turned serious again. “But I think that’s enough fun for today.” She turned to the door, beelining under the cover of Gimme More. However, as she was just a few meters away from the exit, she heard a sickening splash under her foot and almost fell face-first onto the hard-looking floor. “That goo!” she thought, trying to tear her leg away from the floor to no avail. “But… I can’t see it… Is that the first Stand’s ability? Making things invisible? This is not good at all…” She heard the gurgling sound again and froze. Turning her head, she felt an unpleasant knot in her stomach. The room was now filled with slowly moving pink bubbles. The scenery would be pretty, Barbie World-like, if it didn’t mean that Mona Lisa was at a great disadvantage. “No sound,” she thought, stopping her fruitless attempts to free herself. “They react to sound… If I use Gimme More to blur the goo under me, it’ll cause too much noise. But if I don’t, their number will only increase. It doesn’t seem like their creation costs the user anything. The longer I think… the less chances of leaving I have. However…” “Alright, assholes. Bring it in!” Mona Lisa yelled, lowering her body. Gimme More started spinning head-down on top of her, sharp heels kicking in every direction like a razor-sharp, blurring whirligig. Attracted by the noise, the bubbles flew right at the Stand, its limbs turning them into fuzzy pink blots exploding with bubblegum-ey liquid on the walls. The room was cleared of the bubbles and painted with hot pink in seconds, and immediately, Gimme More turned to blur the goo on the floor, only to realize it also could not move. “Impossible!” Mona Lisa thought, staring in shock at the goo now covering her entire body and continually flowing towards her, as if she was magnetic, turning her and Gimme More into two bimboficated cocoons. “Let us stop this,” Pina Colada’s voice said. She stepped out of the invisible door behind Mona Lisa and immediately sighed, glued to the floor. “Mai Tai, chérie, please clear my floor, I really like walking on it.” The invisibility effect disappeared, showing that there was even more goo, cabinet looking like a Pink Panther’s masterpiece. “Signora Regio…” Mai Tai called, appearing as well. Behind her, Mona Lisa saw a small, roly-poly-resembling Stand, gurgling and rotating its head, but no longer emitting bubbles. “We really have started on a wrong note…” “No jokes,” Mona Lisa grumbled. “Stalking makes for one shitty first impression.” “I have only been on this job since your trip to Egypt,” Mai Tai said apologetically. “And I actually came here to tell you that… there will no longer be any eyes on you. I convinced the Foundation that you are not dangerous.” “And how do you know that I’m not?” “You avoid other Stand-users. Any supernaturally powerful objects or people, really. If you were trying to raise an army, you’d act differently. Some of your half-siblings… are very different, yet the Foundation doesn’t follow them as closely, and I find that odd and discriminatory. Shiobana-san or signore de Luca appear more suspicious to me… But my concerns weren’t heard. They still aren’t. Shiobana-san is at least communicating with a Foundation agent, but de Luca… we lost him just recently, and nobody is worried…” “I don’t want to know any of those things!” Mona Lisa growled, but retracted Gimme More, the blur disappearing as well. “I don’t care for my fucking father and I sure don’t give a shit about my supposed siblings.” Mai Tai furrowed her brows sympathetically, making Mona Lisa’s fists itch. “My apologies,” she sighed. The bubbles and the goo disappeared along with the gurgling Stand, but as Mona Lisa glanced at the door, Pina Colada hugged her arm tightly, clearly not willing to let go anytime soon. “In any case!” Pina Colada said cheerfully, “Now that things are settled and we are all friends…” “We are not,” Mona Lisa tried to cut her off. “Since we are, I would like to invite you to dinner!” Pina Colada beamed, seemingly not listening to Mona Lisa at all. “We are neighbors now too, anyway…” “I promise I will not trouble you further, signora Regio. Please enjoy your stay on Vieux Carre. It will be your first vacation without any troubles, as far as I can tell…” Mai Tai smiled apologetically, but the smile looked pathetic at best. And, immensely pleased at the defeated look on Mai Tai’s face, Mona Lisa nodded. “One dinner, and then both of you get off my ass.” “On the house, too, naturally!” Pina Colada exclaimed, clapping her hands. “Let’s meet at the hotel restaurant at six. I promise you the best of service. Per usual, of course, but even better!” Mona Lisa sighed then added another demand. “And, you will explain your Stands so that you won’t catch me off-guard again.” “Naturally.” Pina Colada made an effortless somersault onto her desk and plopped back into the pillows of her fancy boss armchair. “My Stand is called Queen of White Lies, and Mai Tai’s is Bubble Pop Electric,” she explained, beaming. “We are quite a good team, eh?” She winked at the hijabi. The latter sighed, looking into the window, and Pina Colada shrugged, redirecting her charms at Mona Lisa. “My Queen of White Lies is able to, basically… Well. It hides things. I never put much thought into where or how. Up to this day, I had no idea the hideouts could be found by other Stands and their effects. As for BPE… Chérie?” Mai Tai turned to them halfway. “It creates bubbles of controllable pink liquid. The bubbles themselves only move in search of the sound sources, but the liquid is fully under my control.” “But you had to hide it,” Mona Lisa hummed. “Can’t move much?” “No, it is almost entirely stationary,” Mai Tai turned to Mona Lisa, voice turning pleading. “Signora Regio, I…” “I’m out of here,” Mona Lisa turned around, heading for the door. “Restaurant at six, and if I see your pink friend, I’m blurring your ass, Madam President.”