Chapter 3 - Jonah Jorioh Just Works

Wednesday, October 7th, 2020

Jonah Jorioh threw his fast food bag away and stuffed his phone in his pocket. The 20 year old sophomore continued to follow his weekday routine like he always did, approaching the doors of the university's library. For the past year, he made a stop in the middle of the day to work on some schoolwork or study. This time he was here to get ready for a civil engineering exam, and review the countless pages of notes and practice problems he'd cried over during the unit. As uncertain as he may be about his grade, however, Jonah went to his professor's office hours often, so he would likely do better on the test than he thought. That is, until he felt his empty pocket.

Jonah froze, eyes wide, staring at the turnstile where students had to swipe their ID card before entering the building. He then frantically began patting down his pockets, praying that his memory of leaving it in his dorm was wrong. The school had recently started using these ID cards to track various statistics about where students spend their time, and Jonah was still getting used to bringing it with him all the time. Finally admitting defeat, Jonah walked around to the side of the building. He knew from previous visits that a bathroom was on the other side of the wall. Taking a deep breath, he walked into the wall. Jonah's body warped and 'glitched' around while clipping through the surface of the brick wall, as if he were a character in a buggy Bethesda game. Slowly, he made his way into the building and cleared the other side of the bricks unscathed. Looking around, he was in a bathroom, but he miscalculated. He actually entered the female restroom instead of the male one located next to it. He sighed in relief that no one was looking and began to exit, until a stall door opened.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing in the girl's restroom? Do you want me to call the cops?" A female student pointed from the stall door.

Oh shit. Jonah thought. He had no clue what to say in response to the girl, until he remembered that he was on a college campus. Well, here goes nothing.

"Please try not to assume people's genders, alright?" Jonah snapped back. The girl's pointed hand slowly dropped to her side. With that, Jonah took his chance and darted out of the restroom.

The girl looked confused and walked to the sink. "He- uh, she didn't even wash her hands…" She muttered.

Jonah made sure the coast was clear, then found an empty table to sit down in. The library was three floors high, but was covered in old carpet and built on a budget. Still, a library is a library, and it provided a good locale for him to study. He began the tedious process of taking his laptop and engineering materials out of his backpack, and began reviewing his notes for that week. It could be worse. Jonah thought to himself. Mr. Sandman hasn't talked to me in at least a week, so hopefully I can focus less on his missions and more on my actual classwork. The student had no clue how the mysterious stand gets in contact with him every so often, but Mr. Sandman had promised him benefits in the future for his work, even if Jonah had no say in the matter. The missions he'd been given so far were simple enough. Deliver a package here, spy on a person there, but tasks had been getting more questionable as time went on. For example, a few weeks ago Jonah was tasked with using his stand to break into a university financial office and steal records of transactions that were about to be burned, as the university was switching its record keeping to digital formats. He was almost caught, but he had no choice. As a reward, The sophomore found a Chick-Fil-A gift card in his dorm room a few days after dropping off the documents. He was pretty offended by the token reward for such intensive work, but couldn't afford a meal plan and at least it was something. Either way, he hoped that he could avoid thinking about his stand work for at least a while. However, it was at that moment when a student he'd never seen before stood next to his table.

…

Oscar Velendez could see the library in the distance. It reminded him of the conversation he just finished with Monika, where he had gone into more detail about the strange dream he had and the much more ornate building he saw inside it. He checked the battery level on his airpods, and it read 74 percent. His high school friends had all helped pitch in to buy him a pair of AirPods for his birthday one year ago, and his father had a company family plan for smartphones, which Oscar was grateful for.

"That was a good idea about talking through the airpods. It feels just like a normal phone call." The freshman spoke into the device's microphone.

"Yup. The now familiar voice replied. "No one will suspect a thing. So, do you remember what this Jonah looks like?" Monika asked.

"Sort of. I know he had scruffy brown hair and wore a black jacket. He kinda looks like Todd Howard now that I think about it." Oscar recounted.

"Fair enough. Maybe he'll ask you to buy Skyrim again." Monika giggled, hoping to impress her user with her knowledge. "Say, how about I surprise you with something?"

"That sounds suspiciously vague. What are you talking about?" Oscar prodded. He was starting to get used to Monika's mannerisms and humor, and it seemed to him like she was basing it on his own. He found it amusing, but secretly hoped that she'd develop a personality somewhat separate from his own. Either way, he felt like he could get used to having someone to talk to whenever he wanted, as odd as the circumstances were.

"Well, I did some more research on you to, um, let's just say to work better as a team. In doing so, I believe I found your musical preferences."

"Oh yeah? What'd you use, my youtube watch history? That's too easy."

Monika chuckled at that. "I couldn't agree more. I went deeper, to more, familial ties."

"Alright," Oscar caved. "Surprise me." Following this, the airpods flared to life with a harmonica and piano.

"On a rattlesnake speedway in the Utah desert, I pick up on my money and head back into town…"

"How'd you know I'm a fan of The Boss?" Oscar exclaimed as his spirits picked up. He could only imagine the grin on Monika's face as she spoke over the music.

"Let's just say your father has good tastes, they might as well rub off on you." She replied with glee.

"Well shit, I don't know whether to be impressed or afraid of your ability to invade my privacy." He commented jokingly.

"It's not like Google or anyone else wasn't already accessing your data. If anything, I'm just putting it to better use." Monika assured with a little too much enthusiasm.

"Fair enough, but wait, here's the chorus." Oscar interrupted. "Well the dogs on main street howl, 'cause they understand, if I could reach one moment into my hands. Mister I ain't a boy, no I'm a man, and I believe in a promised land!" He sang aloud, sparking a few curious gazes from onlookers. However, Oscar didn't care; he was too lost in the moment.

Oscar's grandfather, Miguel Velendez, had come to this country from the Dominican Republic with only with pocket change, and slowly built a life for his family in Florida. Miguel taught his son, Joshua, the same values of hard work that he had known, and those same values were passed to Oscar along with the taste in music that the men in the family had picked up during their time in the States. Oscar was a firm believer in the American dream, and wanted to prove to his family that he would use his time in school to help get a good career. His family was relying on him to help their family they still have in the Dominican Republic. Every summer, Oscar would help go down there with a church mission group to do service projects and visit his cousins. These memories that Oscar cherished so much were steadily pieced together by the questionably benevolent entity in his pocket, using internet footprints and social media posts. Oscar was still unsure of the pseudo-A.I. he carried with him, but set his fears on the backburner in order to be friendly like he is to everyone else. I said I'd give her a chance. He thought to himself over the sounds of Bruce Springsteen. Maybe this won't turn out too bad after all. The music carried him all the way through the turnstile at the library's entrance, and the girl in his pocket was beginning to nod her head along to the song, even though no one could see her.

...

The student standing next to Jonah Jorioh seemed just like many other students at the university. He had smooth black hair and wore a pair of cheap sunglasses on top of his head. He had airpods in his ears and looked like he was on the phone with someone.

"Yea, this is definitely the place" The student talked into the airpods, oblivious to the student next to him. "Now, to find our Todd Howard…" he continued. Eventually, the man noticed the other student he was standing a little too close to, and he stepped back while sizing up Jonah and taking out only one of his airpods.

"Can I help you?" Jonah asked, confused at his behavior.

"Oh, my bad, man" He apologized. "I'm looking for a guy named Jonah Jorioh. Is that you?"

"You said it wrong."

"I beg your pardon?" The student raised an eyebrow.

"It's pronounced 'Jor-ee-oh', not 'Jor-eye-oh.' He clarified. "Plus, who's asking?"

"Sorry about that. My name is Oscar Velendez." The student explained. "I'm here to ask you about stands?" Suddenly, Jonah's eyes widened and he reached up to grab Oscar's collar.

"How the hell do you know about stands? Who sent you?" He questioned aggressively.

"It was Mr. Sandman!" Oscar squeaked in surprise. "He told me last night to find you and explain how stands work so we could complete a mission!" At this revelation, the grip on Oscar was released. Jonah quickly glanced around to make sure no one was listening, then motioned for Oscar to sit down while he lowered his voice.

"My bad then. I'm just a bit paranoid when it comes to this stuff. The Boss hasn't talked to me in a week." Sighed Jonah in relief. Although Jonah obviously wasn't referring to Springsteen, the mention of that nickname incited a slight smirk from Oscar. Ignoring this, Jonah pressed on.

"So you're a new recruit, huh?" Jonah asked.

"The name's Oscar. I am, but it's not like I volunteered."

"Neither did I, kid."

"Kid?" Oscar scoffed. "Must not be in a good mood, huh?" He gazed over at Jonah's papers and laptop. "I see that's justified. I've heard the engineering classes are rough."

As annoyed as Jonah was, he could see his point. "You wouldn't know the half of it." he replied. "Wait, didn't you say something about a mission earlier?"

"Yea. He said you had a file folder about it?" Oscar asked.

"I never received a folder…" Jonah muttered as he checked his phone and noticed the familiar notification. "Oh, the boss's burner number just told me to check shelf 300A."

The two students walked over to the indicated shelf, and after a bit of searching they located a manila folder sticking out between the books.

"So, our boss uses burner phones?" Oscar asked as they sat back down at the table. Jonah noticed he seemed to be focusing on something else while he spoke.

"Yea, he needs to keep his privacy for 'safety reasons' or something. Are you listening to music? You look distracted."

It took a few seconds for Oscar to respond. "Oh… yeah. I'm still listening."

"Okay… just pay attention, I'm not gonna repeat myself." Jonah scolded.

Oscar tapped twice on his airpod. "Got it, it's paused."

A while later, the two had dug into the folder. Jonah was scanning the documents within while Oscar was viewing the photo attached by a paperclip.

"So." Jonah broke the silence. "We are looking for a suspected rogue stand user named Emily Weimann.

"What do you mean, 'suspected'?" Oscar frowned.

"There are some reports by students that there's a premed student who's somehow healing injuries on campus for free. If it's a stand, then the boss didn't create it and could be a threat. Sandman's words, not mine."

"Healing people? That doesn't seem too threatening. Also, how is this information even gathered for us?"

"Hell if I know." Jonah answered. I just assumed that the boss has a network of people working for him. Who knows how many stand users are on this campus?"

Oscar squinted at the photograph. "Hey, I think I've seen this person before. She's in my english comp class."

"Really? Are you sure?"

"Yea, I have that class later today." Oscar commented while checking his phone. "I've even seen her name before. We peer review each other's papers."

Jonah closed the folder. "Well that's convenient. You can check her out then, I have a robotics club tonight. We're getting closer to a competition and I don't want to miss a meeting."

"No problem, I can handle it. Quick question, though. What happens if I find out she is a stand user?" Oscar inquired.

"The orders said that if she's willing to cooperate with us, we have to take her to a specific location so she can meet Mr. Sandman. However, if she's hostile, then fight back." Jonah responded. "What is your stand, anyway?"

Oscar froze for a moment. He wondered if it were better if Mr. Sandman and the other knew less about his stand, in case he couldn't trust them. He settled on his answer. "It's an ability that lets me look up information really quickly as long as I have an internet connection."

"Really? Alright, then what's the answer to this practice problem I'm stuck on? Jonah held up a paper with the equation on it. Oscar read it aloud to himself, which Jonah thought odd.

"E to the negative 46." Oscar responded almost immediately after reading the question. He was conveniently holding his phone camera near the page, and the convenient voice in his airpods had told him what to say.

"Fair enough," Jonah commented. "But I'm not sure solving physics problems or spitting random facts will help you in a fight."

"Maybe I'll develop more powers later on, I just got my stand yesterday. Plus, if it's just a healer stand I'm interacting with, I don't think it'll be too much of a problem." He looked at his watch. "Oh shit! I'm going to be late if I don't leave now."

"Don't kill youself." Jonah joked as Oscar fled the library. "Now, back to this mess." He said to himself as he stared at the mound of papers on the library desk.