[center]Collab with [@genon][/center]

Caffe shook his head with arms crossed, leaning back against a white marble pillar. [color=lime]”No no no fratellino, you’re going about it all wrong!”[/color] He chastised his long lost, now found, half brother Birra. They were secluded in the back of the Lucidostella Manor in the garden which had, at one point, hosted a number of parties and soirees. Now the glass tables and chairs had been set aside for large mannequins and training dummies. The family butler, Frederick Mercury, was busy throwing a scorched dummy into a large pile of other scorched, blown apart dummies, then dutifully got back to work setting up another in its place.

[color=lime]”If you’re gonna master your stand, you’re gonna need to put some more OOMF into it!”[/color] To emphasize his point Caffe punched into his open palm. It wasn’t the best direction he could give his little brother. After all, they were just too different people. Caffe enjoyed living on the edge, something that caused Frederick no end of discomfort, but Birra? He was another type of personality entirely.

As for Birra himself, he was...not used to this kind of physical labor. REG boosted his strength, stamina, speed, durability, and reflexes dramatically, to the point where he felt like he could rip a car in half with his bare hands, run a marathon in thirty seconds, dodge a speeding bullet, or walk off a tank shell to the face.

So it should say something that he [i]still[/i] was breathing heavily, drenched in sweat, from how hard he was being pushed.

If other Stand users were as dangerous as he was told, he couldn’t rightly [i]stop,[/i] But continuing like this was Einstein’s definition of madness. He needed to up his game. He decided to focus for a moment, steeling himself and concentrating on his right hand. Then, put all of his enhanced physical strength into a lightning-fast body blow to the dummy.

Its arms, legs, and head blew clean off, but the torso flew backwards with a dent and a spiderweb crack in its midsection as flames licked at the impact site. It flew between the gaps in the courtyard’s pillars and smashed open a formerly-locked pair of double doors. It kept flying. He heard something crash inside and the familiar scratching of the claws of Zaffiro, the family cat, against the floor as she booked it towards another part of the manor.

Then Birra’s blood ran cold as he heard Acqua yelling back, “DID YOU HAVE TO HIT THAT HARD?! THAT DUMMY HIT THE DINNER TABLE AND NOW IT’S CUT IN HALF! AND MY LUNCH WENT SPLAT!”

“Uh...sorry! I didn’t expect that to happen!” Birra called back, now sweating even more profusely. He turned to Caffe. “Dammit, I didn’t mean to cause property damage…” he said, putting his hands to his head.

Caffe grinned. As troublesome as it all was, the loud noise, the destruction, the accidents, it was… Lively. He wiped the grin from his face, almost literally, by taking a pose and pointing down in the direction of Birra. [color=lime]”You dropped your guard, fratellino!”[/color]

“Wait, what?” was all Birra managed to say before--”GACK!”--he took what felt like a prize-fighter’s fist to the stomach, knocking him to the ground.

A button had shot back from inside the manor with the speed and force of a high caliber rifle, punching right into Birra’s exposed gut. If he hadn’t been actively using his stand to empower himself, there’s little chance Birra could have survived the blow, but where did it come from? And how?

[color=lime]”Before Mercury set up that doll, I touched one of the buttons with Walk the Line.”[/color] Caffe explained, shifting his pose and leaning against the pillar with a single open palm. [color=lime]”It spent several seconds dancing around the seams of that doll. As soon as you knocked the doll outside of my effective range, well…”[/color] The elder brother shrugged, smiling a big goofy grin with closed eyes. [color=lime]”Even when you think you’ve won, you can’t [i]ever[/i] drop your guard against another stand user. Not until you know for a fact it’s done and over with.”[/color]

“Are they [i]all[/i] that inventive?” Birra said as he got to his feet.

Caffe took a step forward and held out his hand to help Birra back up. [color=lime]”In my experience? If they were, I’d already be dead. Heheheheheh. But they’ve come damn close. Most stand users are quite creative with their stands. Sometimes it’s situational and you have to think on your feet, aware of your surroundings. Since yours is as subtle as a sledgehammer to the face, you’ve got to work extra hard in creative application, fratellino.”[/color]

Once Birra was up, Caffe turned back to the butler just as the stoic Englishman was about to clean up the mess. [color=lime]”Don’t worry about that, Mercury. We made this mess, it’s only fair we clean it, am I right?”[/color] He looked back to Birra to get his little brother’s confirmation.

“Uh, yeah. I guess after we’ve cleaned up the courtyard I’ll go to the furniture store for another table, and call the locksmith about getting the door lock replaced.” Birra said. “God, that [i]can’t[/i] have been cheap. Sorry again, Caffe.” He began gathering up nearby dummy parts, using his massive strength to carry several dozen pounds of mannequin.

“Uh, sir, please, it’s no trouble for me to-“ Frederick Mercury couldn’t get out anymore before his young master interrupted. 

[color=lime]”It’s no trouble for me you mean. You’re always working so hard, let us get this.”[/color] The butler sighed in defeat, remembering what happened the last time Caffe opted to “clean up” for him, and event destined to repeat itself. After a minute the random debris bits had been gathered up and put into a pile with the rest of the broken dolls and mannequins. 

[color=lime]”Time to go to work… WALK THE LINE!”[/color] Caffe stood tall, stretching himself out as much as he could to the point of standing on his toes. He dramatically pointed an index finger to the sky, his stand appearing next to him as he did so. [i]Shingshingshingshingshingshing[/i] came the sound of slicing air as the mechanized stand rapidly punched the pile into a large clump of broken debris, each fragment no larger than a silver dollar. Then a metallic green aura appeared around the pile and it shot away from Caffe at bullet-like speeds, zipping along between the tiles! Going, going, GONE! The debris flung itself straight out of the yard, over the iron fence and hundreds of meters away… into the neighbor’s yard. 

Mercury sighed, shaking his head. “I shall go wait by the phone for the inevitable complaint…”

“I was [i]going[/i] to take those to the porch….” Birra said, looking at his brother incredulously. He then said, waving his arms, “I was gathering them into a pile so I could get something to put them in! The neighbor’s yard is not a magical place where all trash disappears! They have grounds to sue us now!”

He looked at Frederick sympathetically. “Yeah, you know what, I think you should handle the rest. I’m going to go practice guitar.” He began to walk off, but wasn’t quite out of the courtyard yet.

Caffe scoffed. [color=lime]”Tch. If you’d ever had one of the Spinelli’s shrimp cocktails then trust me, you’d agree they’re trash.”[/color] He moved to catch up with Birra, which wasn’t too difficult considering one was on foot, while the other was wearing professional grade roller blades. 

[color=lime]”Did I hear you say you’re gonna practice guitar? Fratellino, we must take responsibility for our actions!”[/color] he clapped a hand against Birra’s back, then used that contact as a swivel point to roll circles around his younger brother. [color=lime]”You mentioned earlier going into town for a new door? Or was it the table? Either way, I’m sure your mother would appreciate if we followed through on that promise. Come! I will drive!”[/color]

Birra internally sighed. He was really reluctant to do this after Caffe’s response to simply taking out the garbage was to [i]launch the garbage into the fucking sky.[/i] But whatever. “Fine. Let’s go.”

Soon enough, they were in Caffe’s absurd sports car, driving to the furniture store. What was this thing, a Ferrari? A Lamborghini? A Bugatti? He couldn’t tell anymore without checking the marque, Caffe had so many sports cars that Birra felt that he was in a new car every day. It was [i]insane.[/i] 

He felt the wind on his face as they rushed into town, idly playing with his GBA during the car ride. He had REG attached to the outside of the passenger-side mirror, letting him see from the Stand’s perspective as the wind rushed by.

This was one of his favorite things about his Stand. Having a second pair of eyes around you. Invaluable. Especially when it made the best car airbag possible.