P H A N T O M B L O O D
"Amateurs can fucking suck it."
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3rd of November 1888
"Father, how are you feeling today?" Dio asks as he and Jojo stand next to the sickly lord's bed.
The fire in the room crackles as a certain gardener feeds it more wood. With it being winter and all, the flames were the only thing keeping the room warm for the poor lord.
Speaking of, the moustached man coughs heavily, "But for this cough, much improved over yesterday. The doctors say I should be in the hospital."
"Why? I fear it would do you no good," Dio pauses slightly, allowing Jojo to turn to him and gasp, "Hospitals only care about profit. They'd measure you for a shroud ere they saw you cured."
Pft, like Lord Joestar, couldn't afford to splurge on getting cured by greedy medical professionals trying to scam him. A hospital would be fine.
'Actually... Germs were discovered what? 27 years ago? Goodness, only seven years older than myself. Maybe some unhygienic hospital wouldn't be the best then,' You thought from the corner. Though Lord Joestar would only get the best care in a hospital wouldn't he? There'd be no worry about a lord having mushrooms growing in his hospital bed. Surely then there was no reason for him not to go. What was Dio plotting?
"Hm, then here I shall remain. The comforts of home are curative, likest not." The weary lord pauses to cough again and you quickly rush over to him with a glass of water. A vague attempt at getting a pay rise, "My chest doesn't pain me so and the swelling has gone down. I'm on the mend."
Once again the lord coughs and he accepts the water before turning back to his sons much happier, "I heard tell of your victory, stunning bit of teamwork."
Both Jonathan and Dio seem completely shocked and you can't believe that they had both earned degrees.
"Someone told you about it?" Jojo gasps.
'I am literally standing right here. I spoke to you at the game and before I came back here, after the game.' You blink.
"I got word straight away from an old colleague chum." Lord Joestar winks and smiles at his shocked sons.
Oh great, you'd remain an anonymous tip-off for a laugh. What joy.
Rich people humour.
"Well whoever he is, he's fast. I'm glad he wasn't on our opponent's team or we could've lost," Dio jokes and you lose some brain cells. Though if you had been on the other team you would've definitely won the game, not to brag or anything.
All three of the idiot nobles laugh, Dio leaning forward to chuckle and Jonathan leaning back. Always gotta polarise each other, huh. Though you're not too frustrated at the weird third party perspective of being joked about at this point. In fact, you have to look towards a vase to avoid laughing at how cute the two younger aristocrats were.
There were actually a lot of flowers in the room, from bunches of sweet-smelling and flowering herbs to newer, brighter flowers now that he seemed to be getting better.
You noted a few particular combinations in the vases you stared at, chamomille, sage, heather and thrift. Elder, fennel, feverfew and mullein. Hell, even snowdrops and purple cornflowers.
All for the encouragement of healing. Or a raise.
"I'm proud of you lads. You both turned out so well, providence is too kind," George says, "Dio, I'm so glad you've thrived. Pursue your ambitions-whatever they may be. I will lend you aid whatever way I can, my son."
"You rescued me from calamity, already my debt is more than I could ever repay. You do me too much honour."
What a pleasant and up-right answer.
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Later in the day you were out in the garden, stood against a wall of the house as you took stock of what plants you needed. Said plants were red clover and elderflower, both luckily still in bloom despite how far into the winter it was.
Though unluckily you couldn't choose between the two.
If you gave Lord Joestar a red clover tea it would support his immune system and help with the disease but the plant came with a few too many side effects. Elderflower tea on the other hand helped with flu and was antibacterial. There wouldn't be any side effects to really endanger the old man but still, the disease Lord Joestar has might be completely unrelated to flu.
Ughhhh, decisions suck.
Though you immediately stop thinking about the choice when you hear something tapping from behind you.
You jump away from the wall in shock and to your great relief see that it's just Jojo smiling at you through a library window and not some maid to get you in trouble and report you to Cicely.
You grin and wave at him to which he quickly waves back. You blow him a kiss and he goes red, a funny expression with the whole massive frame and all, and the Joestar scurries away into the library.
Humming you turn away from the window and head towards your shed residence. Yes, you'd decided. You'd make Lord Joestar regular green tea, it'd be good to get any toxins or poisons out of him.
Not that you were suggesting foul play in his illness.
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You head towards the large stairs of the front entrance, carefully balancing a tray of tea and biscuits. You turn the hallway into the large foyer just in time to see a cute looking pink Dio being thrown off the balcony by a green Jojo.
'Goodness.' You think, watching the oddly coloured chap hit the floor. It had been years since Jojo and Dio had fought, you'd almost forgotten that the colours of the world around you seemed to change whenever it happened.
Though the colour change doesn't last longer long as you step further into the room and the now normal coloured blonde rolls over and spits out blood, muttering venomously, "Damn your eyes."
You sigh and stand over near the blonde, looking at him and then up at Jojo. What in the world had happened?
"Of course, you've been planning to murder him for years now! I knew it! I knew that you were playing false with us, " The blue-haired boy at the top of the stairs accuses, leading you to glance at and step away from the blonde. "But now your villainy is over! Once I've learnt what this is I'm taking it to the police straight away!"
You couldn't quite see the odd little pill in Jonathan's hand as he quickly walked off but you could see the malice building up in Dio.
"...What's this about then?" You ask, trying to ignore the urge to freak out. Dio was interested in murdering someone? Not overwhelmingly good news. Instead of losing your shit, you balance the tray on one arm and your hip and offer Dio a hand up.
However, the angry blonde doesn't reply. Merely grabbing your wrist, pulling himself up and angrily hobbling back to his room with you in tow.
"Dio are you dragging me because I know medical shit? Are you hurt? What was Jojo doing talking about murder and villainy? I bet you did kill Danny didn't yo-" Dio slams his hand into the wall behind you and you go quiet, looking at his cross little face as he looms over you, "Hm, righty-o then."
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"I'll be back from London in a few days father, til then only accept medicine from the hands of these doctors. No one else." Jojo says solemnly to the busy room.
The four doctors next to him all had funny looking moustaches but you knew that just made them more trustworthy.
Simon seemed devastated and betrayed that he couldn't be trusted with the medicine but you were too tired to care. He'd never been a good servant anyway, too carefree with incinerators. He looked close to tears and sobbed out something that you were too busy yawning to hear.
"Yes, we will do as Jojo has instructed us. His reasons are a mystery to me but I trust the boy with my life." Lord Joestar says before breaking into a coughing fit, worrying the other inhabitants of the room.
He really was a nice bloke and it was saddening to know how Dio wanted to kill him- as you'd been properly informed by Jojo the following morning after the fight and now in the afternoon Jojo had set up this elaborate plan to protect his dad while he quickly left to find a cure with you.
"Thank you, father," Jonathan said and he must've been monologuing because as you look at his silent face it transitions between the sick lord's warm room and the cold carriage taking you both to London.
You don't know why you'd been invited to London, you don't like cities very much at all. But it still warms your heart to think about how Jojo wanted you to come with him. He was adorable.
The Joestar looks at the poisonous pill in his hand before glancing at you. You give him as good as a hug as you can get in a carriage.
"Don't worry Jojo dearest, I'm sure we'll be able to save Lord Joestar! You'll be the brawn and I'll be the botanist and boom, everyone will be home safe lickety-split. And Dio can suck on it in some rich person prison. Say what the fuck are those sheep doing?"
"I- I have no idea!" Jojo responds as you both press your faces to the glass of the carriage window, watching as hundreds- no thousands of sheep run across the surrounding area.
"Hopefully such a big group of unprovoked sheep escaping and running as far away as possible from your estate isn't a bad omen Jojo."
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I'm so excited for Speedwagon. I love him so much smh. If you're wondering why this chapter is paced kinda weird,, thank phantom blood ig.
Also umm,, while we never really get any specific dates for phantom blood in the anime I did the maths and realised it was probably-maybe the 3rd of November for this chapter.
So yeah,, hence the brief mention of the Great Sheep Panic on the 3rd November 1888. I am a nerd, thanks for coming.
Thank you for reading!