Of Emperors and Penguins (Open)

Well, that makes two guys who had no idea why they were at the zoo. Aoi was busy with his eyes fixated on his creme-spinach colored Game Machine, so, more than likely the ginger had wound up walking right into the zoo without even realizing it. More than likely busy trying to get that dang golden coin in his game. Aoi's eyes darted up from his game to find out he was even IN the zoo to begin with, and when he did...Well, he didn't have that big a reaction.


Aoi yawned, as he looked at the lion exhibit to his direct right. Pretty neat, As Aoi smiled, faking a silent growl back to the lion, which thankfully everyone was too focused on the exotic animal to even care for the hoodie man...Which, by the way, the hoodie during this sweltering day was a WONDERFUL idea, gamer boy. Aoi kept walking down the cobblestone path to finally find himself looking into the ice-cold Penguin exhibit...


You know, its not that normal of a day when you see something more interesting than an arctic animal, but, that guy's Blonde and Purple hair due would of done it. Aoi opened his mouth, about to say something witty about that dude's hair, but simply shut up as he went back to jumping up and down in his game, the loud blips and beeps no doubt distracting some of the people attempting to enjoy the black and white birds.

The girl herself, clad in what could only be an aviation jacket, however it had a various amount of patches upon it suggesting it was rather old. Beneath that she had a single dress on, the skirt of it ending a few inches above her stocking-clad knees. The color of this dress was yellow and seemed a bit newer. Her skin a soft mocha color and her hair a dark brown.

Of course, she seemed more than a little pissed off as she was splashed with water. However, this man had activated her trap card - the race card! "What exactly do you mean by 'people like you'." the girl said as she went to hold her arms outwards, "You probably have some kind of nerve walking and talking like that. Surprised you don't have any bruises yet."

Of course, when he got splashed, she couldn't help but giggle out some herself. At least he got what was coming to him, there. For a second, she was distracted by a passer by. He seemed to have some kind of game system on him, with the beeping and the booping. Interesting sounds, no doubt. Sounds that Katherine usually only heard in an arcade! But no! It was like a portable arcade! She was about to ask the other where he got it when the first one - the blonde haired one, seemed to say he was leaving.

Frustrated, she stomped her foot down, marching forward slightly after him, "Hey! You don't get to leave yet!" she said before she.. Noticed something. A birthmark. Not only that - but it was identical to the one she had! Both in size, shape, color, and location. "Hey! Stop! Why do you have a tattoo like that." she said. It couldn't be a coincidence. Had to be a tattoo that person got, right?

As Apollo spoke, apparently he pissed off the lass.  He had no idea why she was angry, but as he listened to her, he was able to infer that referring to her as 'you people' pissed her off.  Apparently she has a problem with being associated with being a plebeian, but that is what she was.  Then again, she might be in the same predicament as him, being royalty yet without a throne...  But that was unlikely.

Then he started to leave, but heard the woman get all huffy and puffy, angry that he was already leaving.  Internally, he smirked because it sounded like she wanted him, although at the same time he believed that she wanted to gouge his throat out.  Either way, he would spin around on his heel in order to face the woman who approached him.  As he did so, she seemed to be choking on her words.  She would then spit out a question regarding the mark on the back of his shoulder.

"Ehhh?" Apollo let out with a raised eyebrow while he put his shirt on the ground.  He would take a couple steps forward, while explaining to her, "Well, I have no idea what you mean by tattoo.  I have never gotten a tattoo in my life, although I may get one in the future.  But if you are referrin' to this birthmark, I was told that it was the royal Novoselic birthmark, which appears on those who are born to do great things...  That is... before my country collapsed because of the territory hungry neighbors of our small kin'dom.  Oh, and about 'you people', I was referrin' to you plebeians.  Commoners.  People who are not born of royalty, etcetera, etcetera.  Why are you interested in such a thin' anyw-"

He would be interrupted by the boy he decided to ignore earlier, who apparently came up and asked about the ghost thing that was following the lass who had a beef with him.  He would also ask they not fight, seeing as how this boy may be a pacifist type of person.  This boy was curious about stands, and would proceed to summon his own stand.  Observing the odd stand, it seemed to be made of the same pixels that were in that little game whatsit that he was playing in that device.  It was an odd stand no doubt about it, but Apollo was more confident about his own stand.

Seeing as how things might get crazy, he decided that if he was going to show his stand, now would be the time.  Rather than pulling it out when she decided to get angry and attack him with her stand, he would want to intimidate her with his superior Tyrant Purple.  Materializing right behind him, Apollo's stand would appear, while the owner of the stand said with confidence, "Now that we all know we have these, let's not fight and waste time since I can easily put you both down.  And, seein' as how you-" he and his stand would point at the younger one and his stand, "- are curious about these ghosts, I assume that you have no idea what stands are.  I have little knowledge myself, since the only knowledge you gain of these is by meeting other stand users and the like..."

He would pause as he would walk over to the younger person, observing his very nervous attitude and the like. Once he closed the distance between them, both him and Tyrant Purple would lower their stances so that they were looking at him at eye level.  He would then proceed to explain his own knowledge of stands, "So, I will pass on knowledge about stands to you.  From what I know, stands are a physical manifestation of your inner self, and they have a different ability varying from stand to stand.  There are chances that people can have similar abilities in their stands, but that is very rare in my opinion.  And if something hurts the stand, it would hurt you as well.  Some people are born with it, and some people develop stands as they grow older.  That's pretty much the basics of stands, at least what I know of it.  Be grateful that someone like me can pass on this knowledge to you...  But is there anythin' in particular you want to know?"

 From nearby, a slight crunching noise came. From around the corner, the long-coated figure of Victor leaned, munching away on a bag of popcorn and watching all this with evident delight. How exactly he had been watching became quite a bit clearer in a moment, when his Stand also leaned outwards, having been peering just over the cage behind which the priest had been standing. " 'Ello Again, Katherine. How are you on this glorious evening?"

 Stepping out, the priest balanced the bag on one hand, flicking popcorn into his mouth with the other, and glanced between the two. "Sorry, overheard someone talking about Stands and then a moon birthmark, couldn't help but be nosy." Over his head, the unusually large form of White Death sat, tail flicking occasionally. Looking over at Apollo, it snorted. "Greetings, your majesty." The rumbling tone and flat stare made it very hard to tell if it was being sarcastic or serious. 

 "You missed something there, my son, which is that Stand Users naturally gravitate towards each other. We're drawn to one another, like lonely ships to a lighthouse in the dark turbulent seas. Invariably, we either ally or fight." He shrugged, taking the empty bag in one hand, and crunching it into a ball. Squeezing it, there was a rustling noise, and the wind carried some small cloud away from his hand. Opening the fist, there was nothing there at all, save for a bit of something white on the black glove. Perhaps salt from the popcorn. 

 "It also depends on how long the Stand User has had their stand, from birth or unlocked later in life. One gets more familiar with it over 20 years than a few scant months." Smiling slightly at the implications, he moved closer, nodding and smiling at those assembled. "Katherine here already knows me, but for the others... my name is Victor A. Dominatus. I work for the Catholic Church, and unless you happen to be afraid of sunlight or attacking innocents with your stand, I'm sure we'll get along just swimmingly." 

Apollo, as he finished up giving his version of the explanation about stands, he would turn his gaze towards the darker skinned woman, as she did say something about it her being born for greatness.  Nervous about what this means, he had to check her out in order to see what she was going about.  Then he saw it.  The red crescent on the back of her shoulder, the same exact size, position, color, EVERYTHING.  Everything was similar.  His jaw dropped as he pushed himself onto his feet, taking a couple steps towards her in order to inspect the symbol, as he has got to confirm it himself.  His mind was racing so much that he completely ignored her threat about the way he was speaking.

He stopped himself, however, as another voice made itself apparent in the situation.  He would turn his head to see something that widened his eyes.  No, he was not intimidated by the appearance of the giant skeletal stand, I mean it is probably weaker than his own Tyrant Purple.  What he was intimidated was the fact that this man was a priest, horrid memories rushing back into his head.  Finding himself in a bit of a cold sweat, he would shake his head as he tries to keep himself focused on the present rather than dwelling on buried memories that he had repressed for so long.

When his mind came to, the man spoke in an unusually deep voice for the type of body he had, and started speaking about how he eavesdropped on the conversation.  Then ANOTHER voice chimed in, adding in the greeting comment.  Although Apollo kept his eyes on the person himself, Tyrant Purple would look into the empty holes in the skeletal head, and lifted its chin with a smirk on its face, practically beaming about the fact that its master was actually referred in a royal way.

Apollo would actually pay attention to this newcomer as he started to talk about another fact that apparently the ex-prince himself did not know himself.  It was the mere fact that stand users are drawn to each other, like beacons or some shit.  A better metaphor probably would have been like magnets, but he did not want to interrupt the guy.  However, while observing the man, Apollo would notice the bag of popcorn he was eating turned into dust after he crushed his hand.  His stand probably had the power of something along the lines of disintegration, which means until the ex-prince had a ranged way of dealing with him, this man was not one to fuck with.

By the time the priest guy finished talking, the pipsqueak decided to chime in about his own name, Apollo had already figured that the lass was Katherine, pipsqueak's name was Aoi, and the priest was Victor.  Since it was due time that introductions were to be made, the shirtless prince would place a palm over his heart with an outstretched arm motion, saying in stride, "Well, I kept you waitin' enough.  My name is Apollo Liece, prince of the fallen kin'dom of Novoselic.  Mr. Priest, I apologize if this comes off rude, but our people have trust issues with people of religious faith.  They have always done horrid things in our kin'dom, so until I earn your trust...  Well, I'll trust you as far as I can throw.  But first thin's first..."

Apollo would turn on his feels and head towards Katherine once more.  He would spin around her and pull down her shirt collar the same way she did earlier; enough to reveal the appearance of the crescent birthmark.  He would immediately put his finger to hit and slide his finger down the form of the birthmark, feeling the same texture of skin as normal skin.  With tattoo'd skin, there is a very subtle portion of raised skin where the tattoo is, but not on Katherine.  With a gasp, he would release her collar and take a couple steps backward, moving a hand to his mouth in shock.

Ideas ran through this head about her being a lost princess of Novoselic, since only the Novoselic kingdom had people of this birthmark.  At least, that was according to his father whenever he asked about this crescent brand.  Hand still in front of his mouth, he would ask Katherine as he would position himself in front of her, "W-...  Would you have any idea about your lineage of sorts?  Who gave birth to you or whatnot?  Do you know your mum or pa?"

What he would do next would depend on her answer, because if it was what he was thinking...  Well, he would immediately think it since she would admit that she came from an orphanage.  Apollo smiled at first then quickly hugs her, letting out one word...  The one of the two words he always wanted to say as a single kid back in Novoselic, who really had no human interaction outside of his servants, mother, and father.

"Sister!"

 (Sorry, thought it was Blue, got mixed up.) 

 Victor raised his eyebrow slightly, staring at the hovering stand above Aoi. It looked... unusual. Rather blocky, in fact. He didn't know why, but it seemed that it was on purpose. "Well, it's always lovely to meet another Stand User." 

 Turning to Apollo, he smiled, waving a hand. "Ah, I'm sorry to hear that, my son." Novaselic... That name brought back memories. What the hell was the prince doing here in New York City? He was about to try to regain control of the situation, when everything changed. Again. 

 Apollo rushed over, and for a second, appeared to be attacking Katherine. Victor was moving forward, half-ready to attack himself, when he heard the words and saw him hug her. "Sister...?" That... was confusing. There shouldn't be any more siblings of that royal family floating about. Even this one seemed bizarrely out of place. White Death crouched above him, looking back and forth, slowly resting from it's ready-to spring stance. 

 "Well... what a wonderful reunion. So... what now?"