"You seem troubled, Jotaro," Enrico said, glancing briefly at Star, then around at the closet where he currently found himself. "And it seems as though, loathe though you may personally be to call for help when you require it, it seems that your Stand is a great deal more willing than you to seek aid."

"You know what Star is?" he asked, seeing the way Enrico looked at Star with the sort of recognition that he hadn't seen from anyone but those people who already had Stands; or Aunt Alice, but she was pretty hard to surprise in any case.

"I suspected that you had come into possession of something of this nature, but I knew that your yourself would need to experience the knowledge you possessed in order to truly understand it," Enrico said, and Jotaro folded his arms as he stared down at Uncle Dio's follower.

He wasn't quite as weird as Vanilla Ice, but he had his moments.

"So, you have a Stand too, then?" he asked; Avdol had explained that the only people who could see Stands were those that possessed them as well, so it was a natural thing to think.

The crowned figure that rose, smirking, from Enrico Pucci's back could only be the Stand that he hadn't shown to Jotaro the first time that the pair of them had spoken about the weird shit that had been happening to him.

"This is Whitesnake, my troublesome Stand," Enrico said, holding out his right hand as he gestured to the Stand that was, even as he spoke, turning that smirk it had been wearing back down on him.

"This is Enrico, my troublesome master."

"Yours talks?" he demanded, wondering just what in the hell was going on, since that had clearly been a different voice than the one that always came out of Pucci's mouth.

"Whitesnake has always been rather outspoken," Pucci said, a small smile passing briefly over his face, before he became serious again. "Still, I doubt your Stand would have brought me to you if all you wished to do was discus my own circumstances."

Watching as Whitesnake darted over to the door of the closet – that really felt more like a normal room, since it didn't have all that many clothes in it at the moment, and also because it was seriously fucking huge – Jotaro wondered just what in the hell Pucci had sent his Stand out to do, before Aunt Alice's Stand stepped right through the door, without even bothering to open in it the first place, and handed over a chair before turning and vanishing out through the door again. Pucci took the chair, thanking his Stand for fetching it for him, and settled himself in it as Jotaro watched.

"So, seeing as your Stand clearly brought me here for a greater purpose than mere chitchat, tell me what is truly on your mind, Jotaro Kujo."

Sighing, knowing that Pucci wasn't the type to betray a confidence once he had it, Jotaro settled himself back in his own seat.

=SC=

Curled up with Loreena on one of the large, soft couches that had been set up in what seemed to be some kind of a lounge – as he'd seen more and more workers coming through the place, Noriaki had found himself reminded that it was eventually going to become some kind of combined hotel and spa, or that was what Mr. Brando kept insisting on – Noriaki wrapped his arms more tightly around her waist as the pair of them leaned in closer for another kiss. Once the pair of them had broken apart, more from a need for air than because either of them had been properly satiated, Noriaki curled his right hand into Loreena's mass of soft, wavy blonde hair, pulling her in as close as he could while the pair of them kissed more deeply.

Something about being with Loreena felt so right; really the pair of them were already so much alike, both having been born with their Stands, and both of them having led such lonely lives before they met, it was almost like fated had brought the pair of them together.

He'd have to remember to thank Mr. Ice for the steamed pork buns he'd brought, though given that they'd probably been another present from Mr. Brando, it might've been best if they thanked him, too. And, since he was the only one out of the pair of them that they knew had a Stand… Hierophant Green rematerialized in response to his thoughts, the way it always had – the way he knew it always would – and Noriaki directed it to find Mr. Brando. Loreena's Crimson Ace appeared just as his Hierophant had departed, hopping up onto the couch to nuzzle him softly, just as Loreena herself leaned in and the pair of them began kissing again.

=SC=

When he, Dio, had found himself sought out by the Stand of Little Lori's adorable boyfriend, he'd found himself all the more pleased with his workings thus far. Since Little Lori was hardly the kind to set her Stand to a task that she herself was perfectly capable of managing, and her boyfriend had seemed rather of the same mind he, Dio, knew that there was very likely to be a great deal more occurring than either of them would have been amenable to speaking about with someone who they would likely consider uninvolved with their charming little courtship.

No matter how deeply that he, Dio, had ultimately involved himself in such a thing.

Making his way into the lounge, a place that he'd been having more and more work done on as he finalized the plans for the Desert Rose and all of her amenities he, Dio, smiled as he watched Little Lori and her adorable boyfriend as they made themselves comfortable on one of the couches that he'd had put in specifically for those kinds of activities. Smirking as he, Dio, passed them by on his way to go speak to one more in a long line of contractors that he'd been dealing with more and more of late, he hummed softly as he continued on his way.

Perhaps he, Dio, would see how these developments panned out, before he made any further moves on that particular project; it seemed to be going rather well, for a start.

=SC=

When she'd made it back to her room, with Jotaro hiding out in her closet in case Joseph wanted to pester him about something or other – not an entirely unlikely prospect, since even with all of Dio's other band of eccentrics, a great many of them seemingly Stand users as well, Joseph was still apt to seek out Jotaro when he just wanted to hang out with someone – Alice had found Caesar on the line.

"So, someone took over the old gang you formed?" she asked, raising an eyebrow as she settled more comfortably into her chair at her desk in this particular room.

"It happened awhile ago, Boss, but whoever's taken command now," there was a sigh over the line, and Alice had the distinct feeling that he was quite a bit more worried than he was letting her know. "They're starting to get into things I tried to keep my people out of when I was the one in charge," another sigh, and Alice got the feeling that he was nerving himself up to ask a favor; she didn't have to spend long thinking about what it might have been. "Do you think you could have Tim look into things there?"

"I think I could arrange something," she said, tilting her head slightly. "Was there anything else you wanted to talk to me about?"

"No, Boss," Caesar said, sounding a great deal more calm than he had during the beginning of their exchange; all to the good, as far as she was she was concerned. "Thank you for hearing me out about this; I know you were enjoying your vacation, but…"

"Some things are more important," she assured the man, as Caesar trailed off from what seemed to be an effort not to say anything he thought might come out wrong; he'd always seemed to step more lightly around her, even in spite of all the years the pair of them had known each other.

It was kind of strange, but she'd long since realized that it was just how Caesar was going to be around her.

More pressing, however, was the matter of TIM; The Illusive Man, a man whose face and name were known only to her. That is, Jack Harper didn't actually exist anywhere but on paper, and in the vague memories of the Mass Effect trilogy that she'd somehow been able to hold onto for long enough to construct the persona that she used to investigate those things that Alice Brando – philanthropist and kindly corporate overlord that she was – couldn't be seen sticking her hands into.

Making her way down the hall to Dio's room, Alice knocked a couple times, and folded her arms neatly behind her back while she waited for her capricious twin to make his appearance.

"Sister, how wonderful to see you again!" Dio exclaimed, grinning widely as he appeared at the door of his room. "Come in, come in!"

"I'm afraid I don't have time for that," she said. "Something's come up in Italy," she continued, watching as an expression of obvious discontent spread over his face as she continued. "Caesar asked me to see if one of my people could look in on it," she said, knowing that there was little chance of her getting out of Dio's mansion without a fuss, considering their present circumstances.

"Wha- but, I thought you were enjoying your time here, sister dear," her capricious twin said, the unhappy expression on his face becoming all the more pronounced with every word he spoke.

"I am, but there are still matters that I have to attend to," she explained, knowing that this wouldn't be the end of things; Dio wasn't the kind who could let go of something he wanted when he'd gotten his hands on it. "I'm going to head back to Italy, but I'll be in contact when I can."

"No!"

It only seemed to take the equivalent of the length of a human's eye blink, before Alice found herself in Dio's room, seated in one of the large, deep plush chairs that Dio favored. Standing back up, Alice summoned Stardust as she made her way up and out of the room.

"Dio, I'll be in touch, but I do need to take care of this," she said, making determinedly for the door, for just a moment, before she had Stardust teleport her to the lower level of the building.

Continuing on her way through the building, Alice heard the sound of hurried footfalls making their way down the stairs towards her. Having Stardust look back over her left shoulder, Alice rolled her eyes as she saw Dio practically dashing down the stairs after her. Another blink of lost time, and Alice found herself cradled in Dio's arms, and sighed in annoyance.

"Dio, I'll be in touch, but I am going to need to go to Italy," she said, calling upon Stardust to literally pull her through Dio's chest and out his back. "That was interesting," she muttered, as she passed through her capricious twin's body, feeling as though she'd just passed through some kind of storm made almost entirely out of static electricity. "Really, we're both immortal," she said, turning her gaze back to her brother as she folded her arms, rather annoyed by this whole charade and everything to do with it. "We have all the time we'll need."

It was a simple matter to have Stardust teleport the pair of them into Dio's foyer, and then to make her way out of the mansion where she and the other members of their family had been staying for the last few months. The sight of her touring car, with Straizo clearly at the wheel as he usually was, prompted Alice to turn her path in order to intercept the path that her retainer was going to have to take to get to the garage that Dio had constructed in order to store the many vehicles that he'd collected over the course of his time.

Well, his time spent in Egypt, anyway.

Knocking on the window, she drew her fellow vampire's attention, signaling for him to roll down the window so that the pair of them would be able to speak more freely.

"I was under the impression that you were going to be staying here for the foreseeable future," he said, raising an eyebrow as the pair of them faced each other.

"There's been a change of plans," she said, as Stardust reached into the car to unlock and then open the passenger door on the side she was standing, letting her climb into the back of the car. "I'm going to need to head to Italy; Caesar informed me of a situation that needs looking into."

Iggy was curled up there, nestled deeply in the plush seats that lined the back of the car, yawning deeply as he raised his head, then barking happily as he raced over to sit in her lap.

"Hey, pup," she said, petting Iggy as the dog settled himself down, turning to bare his teeth at her in what had always looked like a grin that was just a bit too human for anyone else to really deal with; she thought that that might have another of the reasons that no one else had seemed to want to have anything to do with him; there were more than a few times that Iggy could seem far too human for anyone else to be comfortable with.

Glancing over her right shoulder as her car lurched back into motion, already suspecting what she was going to see but wanting to have it confirmed all the same, Alice shook her head as she saw Dio running at the car. Turning to Stardust, she nodded even as her Stand stood up, phasing through the windshield at the back of the car and tossing her brother's Stand off as it tried to grab onto the back of the car. Sighing again as she shook her head, settling back into the seat as Iggy barked softly.

"Easy there, pup; I haven't forgotten about you," she said, chuckling softly as she stroked the dog between his ears, settling all the more comfortably back into the seat they were both in, as Straizo took them both to the hangar that she'd originally arrived in when she'd arrived with Joseph and Holly.

Once the three of them had made their way back to the hangar again, Alice tucked Iggy neatly into the crook of her left arm, standing up as Stardust opened the right-side door for her again, tossing over her umbrella-sword as the Stand smiled softly and faded back into her body once more.

"It's seems that you have acquired the same kind of abilities that he possesses," Straizo said, an expression of curiosity plain on his face, as the three of them made their way back into the plane, with Stardust proceeding to teleport inside the aircraft so that it would be able to open it up for them.

"Yes," she said, casting a glance back over at her fellow vampire as the pair of them settled into their respective places within the plane. "I could make an arrangement for you, if you want."

"No need," Straizo said, having settled himself down in the pilot's seat and begun making preparations to return them to Italy for the first time in at least a couple decades or so. "I've found myself content with what I am."

"As you will, then," she said, smiling softly as Straizo taxied them out onto the runway; Iggy firmly nudged her right hand, folded in her lap, as the terrier nestled itself more comfortably there. "All right, pup; I haven't forgotten about you, no need to fuss."

=SC=

"Uncle Dio's going to be pissed," he muttered, having sent Star out to see what Aunt Alice was talking about when she'd gotten that call.

"Yes," Pucci said, looking out toward the front door of Aunt Alice's room as the pair of them came out of her closet. "Dio will not be best pleased to know that his sister is going to be departing for an unknown amount of time."

"Yeah," he said, as Star vanished back into his body again, going to wherever it was that Stands went when whoever had them wasn't actually calling on them to do anything. "You think I could bunk with you, for awhile? Uncle Dio's going to be… Well, he's Uncle Dio," he said, knowing that while Pucci was a lot like those annoying girls that hung off of him back at school, he was still a pretty understanding type in general.

"Yes," Pucci said, nodding as he turned back to look at him. "I think that Joseph would be best suited to caring for Dio at this time."

It wasn't quite what he'd had in mind, but Jotaro knew that it was really the best that he could expect from Enrico Pucci, considering the kind of man he was. "Thanks."

=SC=

When he, Dio, made his way back to the room that he'd had built and then furnished for himself, he wrapped his own arms around The World's as his glorious, loyal Stand held him from behind. Truly, he'd not been expecting the responsibilities of his undeclared empress – his sweet sister – to intrude so suddenly, so rudely in fact, on the little sanctuary that he, Dio, had worked for so long to create for himself in the midst of Egypt's rolling dunes and ancient places. Leaning back for a lingering moment in his World's arms he, Dio, gathered himself and continued on his way back to his room.

Making a point of passing through the lounge that he, Dio, had set up for the use of those who had been fortunate enough to find themselves invited to his mansion he managed to spot Little Lori and her adorable boyfriend curled up together on one of the larger couches near the back of the lounge. Out of the way of what foot-traffic would eventually and inevitably be winding its way through such a place in the wake of his Desert Rose's grand opening, and therefore quite a bit more intimate.

Rather the perfect place for young lovers.

Feeling a great deal more cheerful, now that he'd had the chance to see the fruits of at least one of his projects he, Dio, began making his way to the room where he'd set Ms. Shiobana up under the care of Vanilla Ice. Humming cheerfully as he reached the door he, Dio, opened it and made his way inside.

"Mr. Brando," Shiobana exclaimed, looking over at him as he, Dio, made his way inside.

"I expect you've been doing well, Miss," he, Dio, said as he made his way over with a cheerful smile; it was clear to see that his sweet little Gio was well on his way to being brought into the world.

"Oh, it's been so nice to stay in a place like this," the woman – flighty as she had proven herself during the time that she'd spent within the walls of his mansion – said, smiling brightly in the way that he'd seen so many women who were not his sweet sister or his adorable Baby Holly.

That annoyingly vapid way that he'd come to find himself so annoyed by the more he, Dio, had been forced to behold it. Yes, he was fully aware that such a thing had a great deal of use – people who were generally uninterested in looking as deep into whatever circumstances they might find themselves facing were quite simple to lead anywhere that he, Dio, might wish to do so – it was still rather irritating to find himself faced with them. Still, he would only be forced to endure the presence of the Shiobana woman for another handful of months; such was a fact that he, Dio, would remind himself of when he inevitably found his patience wearing thin.

Spending what time he, Dio, could endure in the presence of the Shiobana woman while the pair of them spoke about how his little Gio was coming along, he found himself rather pleased; not with the woman herself, of course, since she was a flighty little fool and he'd be perfectly pleased to be rid of her once she had finally brought his sweet little Gio into the world, but knowing how the little one was doing was quite a pleasing thing.

Making his way back to his room he, Dio, smiled with the satisfaction of a task well on its way to a pleasing conclusion.

=SC=

Once he'd managed to get himself settled in Pucci's room – the man's closet wasn't quite as big as the one that Uncle Dio had had built for Aunt Alice, so staying in there wasn't as comfortable as it'd been when he was staying in there – Jotaro found himself wondering just what had drawn Aunt Alice away from Uncle Dio and everyone else. It'd almost sounded like there was something big that she was going to be looking into.

He knew that Aunt Alice wasn't any kind of detective or anything, but that was still the impression he'd gotten from the parts of the conversation that he and Star had been able to overhear.

"Jotaro."

"Huh?" he said, twitching slightly as he saw the smiling face of Pucci's Stand making its way into the closet where he'd been trying to make a place for himself with only a certain amount of success.

"Here," Whitesnake said, chuckling as it handed over a sandwich and a can of root beer. "Enrico thought you might want to have some food, since it's been awhile since you last ate."

"Thanks," he said, taking the food from the Stand as it offered it to him, chuckling softly as he was reminded of the times when Star had fetched things for him.

Whitesnake grinned in passing, before Pucci's Stand turned and left the closet where he was staying; where he was going to stay, at least while he was staying in close proximity to both Mom and the Old Man.

=SC=

When she, Straizo, and Iggy had all arrived back in Italy once again, the first thing Alice found when she'd made her way back up to her office again was the expected form of Caesar waiting for her.

"I'm glad you could make it back so quickly, Boss," the head of her Treadstone organization said, smiling at her as Alice made her way over to the desk that was the centerpiece of her large office.

"It sounded like you could use help coping with this situation," she said, nodding at the blond – his hair only having just begun to go gray at the temples, considering his extensive training with Hamon – as she settled behind her desk so that the pair of them could speak in a more comfortable fashion. "So, some of your people have made contact with you?" she asked, wanting to be certain of just what it was that she was going to be getting into so she would be able to decide on a proper course of action to handle it.

"I've been staying in contact with them, Boss," Caesar clarified, positioning himself neatly in front of her desk as the pair of them began hashing out just what it was that they were going to do in response to this latest situation they had found themselves facing. "All of them have been saying that there's someone making his way through the ranks; someone who wants to change Passione into something else."