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havenrpg app
Name: Danni
Contact Info:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
reenact, khajixda @ AIM, purewhiteglastonbury@gmail.com
Other Characters Played: Travis Touchdown, Tony Chu; apping in Gustavo Fring this round.
Requested apartment: With Joseph Joestar, please!
Character Name: Caesar Anthonio Zeppeli
Canon: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Canon Point: Episode 20, before channeling his Ripple energy away for Joseph.
Background/History: This is the Zeppeli family spirit, from the past to the future! It's the human spirit!
Personality:
We first meet Caesar Zeppeli when he’s at the top of his game for flashy, suave, and over-the-top: hevery embarrassingly sweet-talks a pretty girl over food and wine, he shows protagonist Joseph Joestar up at his own Ripple energy game, and... he does this sweet flippy thing with his dead grandpa's hat.
(Seriously, look at this showy asshole.)
In any case, Caesar's intent, i.e. the image of himself that he wishes to project, is crystal clear-- he's the cool one, and he is superior to Jojo in every way that he can be superior to the guy. He's a ladies' man, he's classy and and cultured and completely put together, he takes great pride in his Zeppeli blood, and he is very, very good at what he does.
And, of course, first impressions aren't necessarily reliable ones.
First of all, what's immediately evident in Caesar's nature is his immense haughtiness and pride. His first spoken line is to make himself look better at Jojo's expense, even: I'm FAR more presentable than THAT tactless, uncultured idiot. And to an extent, he is. Caesar actually does have a fairly solid grasp of social niceties, from looking good in a fancy restaurant to working government connections: he can look good in front of any girl he wants, and he can pull strings well enough to get favors from the German army. Which means that that pride isn't completely unfounded, because god damn does he he knows all of these things about himself, to say nothing of the talent for Ripple that runs in his blood. Caesar isn't shy about his own talents; if he's the best at something, he damn well will let everyone know that much if he can help it. He tries to be as straightforward as possible and is easily irritated by people who bullshit or do things halfway: Caesar does everything as thoroughly and impeccably as possible, because why would he (or anyone else) settle for less when he knows he can meet his full potential?
His competence, of course, doesn't make up for how horrendously petty he can get. Instead of working with Jojo, he talks shit about his family and picks a (literal) fight with him to prove that he's better, that he doesn't need to work with him, that a Joestar will simply drag a Zeppeli down once more. When things have calmed down, he calls Jojo out for challenging him to a game of cards and trying to cheat his way to a win... when he himself had been planning to cheat, as well. Tellingly, he doesn't acknowledge his own error and instead tries to pick another fight with Jojo-- as if getting caught screwing up was Jojo's fault rather than a result of his own hypocrisy. It isn't enough for him to simply be better: others, especially those he feels he is superior to, have to know it, even if that means having to fake it a little.
This inconsistency shows itself again and again, and though it isn't exclusively based in superiority it is always based in Caesar's actions placed alongside what he wants himself to look like. In other words, Caesar is always doing things that come into direct conflict with what he says about himself. The most obvious example is his friendship with Jojo. Even when they manage to get over themselves long enough for a positive relationship to take root, he's still denying his soft squishy feelings of friendship, all in the name of continuing to look better than Jojo. He only helped him because X idea was so stupid and predictable; he's checking on him because he wants to make sure his talent isn't surpassed, not because he's worried; he's not super relieved Jojo isn't dead, or anything, so you survived after all, huh, you must be one lucky guy.
Araki's profile of Caesar says it best: for the most part, he's an annoying guy who really, really likes to look cool.
In accordance with being The Universe's Largest Tsundere, how aloof he'll occasionally fancy himself to be belies his capacity to care-- sometimes, even, to care too much. For how much he tries to present the exterior of being calm and collected, Caesar’s actually a highly emotional person. He cares a great deal for his loved ones, and depending on the person and their level of closeness is fairly open about his affection, including on a physical level. He doesn't shy from initiating contact or hugs or hair ruffles or good-natured teasing (and, hell, he'll even do it to people he doesn't like: he condescends to Joseph before they're friends with a pat on the head). And when it comes to those that Caesar deeply respects, all bets are off. For a person like his Ripple coach, Lisa Lisa, Caesar wastes absolutely no time on hemming and hawing about his admiration-- he'll defend her and talk her up to anyone who'll listen, as well as go after anyone who dares to do or say anything ill toward her. It's not a stretch to imagine that he'd do the same (to a lesser degree) to anyone else he considers a good and reliable friend. Just about his only limitation in this respect is toward those he sees as competition, most notably Jojo, yet again. And even then he's still willing to grudgingly compliment Jojo. Just... not to his face.
It’s rather easy to stir his feelings, for better or for worse. On one hand, this results in a genuinely and deeply caring friend; on the other, it results in a very fatal personality flaw. He is fairly quick to judge and to fully throw himself into situations without first gaining a complete understanding: it isn’t that he acts without thinking so much as he thinks too quickly, assuming details too easily and taking things too closely to heart. In this way, his resolve, admirable as it can be, is also his greatest undoing. Caesar’s confidence is a great asset when well-founded, but should he dedicate himself to an ideal that’s wrong or risky from the get-go--his delinquent youth, his intended patricide, his desire for vengeance against Cars--he lacks the flexibility necessary to stop and consider whether pursuing these convictions is a good idea at all.
This also manifests as an occasional impracticality. Caesar is intelligent, naturally talented, and persistent: consistently capable of thinking outside the box, not so much. He values order and organization and things that make sense-- things that he's able to prepare for and plan out-- but when thrown for a loop or forced to think unconventionally, he'll falter. Yet again, this is another fatally exploitable flaw: Caesar doesn't always know how to react when presented with unexpected twists in a situation, giving a more creative thinker free reign to make a fool out of him while he tries to process the unknown element. Unless he's accompanied by a more flexible thinker. (Which is, coincidentally, why he and Joseph make such a good team: Joseph keeps him from operating so unflinchingly by-the-book, and he keeps Joseph grounded to reality, and the two of them are slowly influencing each other enough that Caesar's beginning to loosen up some.)
Caesar is also highly attached to his own personal values, the most important of which is his connection to his family. Along with an enormous potential for the Ripple, Caesar has inherited the Zeppeli legacy. The pride that he holds for his family name runs deep, but it wasn't always that way. His father Mario Zeppeli abandoned a 10-year-old Caesar and his four siblings, and Caesar's hatred and resentment for the man was intense enough that fell into violence and delinquency and vowed to kill him when he saw him again. Of course, when he did see him again, he learned that Mario was only protecting Caesar and his siblings from that ery legacy-- one of immense responsibility as well as immense tragedy. Caesar's father died before his eyes without even recognizing that the teenage boy he'd saved was his own son.
Therefore, his family history is both a point of pride and a topic of great sensitivity for Caesar. More than anything, he wants to fulfill his role as his father's son-- he idolizes his father (whom, pre-abandonment, he saw as the ideal father and man in general) and grandfather to compensate for the years he refused the Zeppeli name. Prodding at that-- when Joseph snaps that he shouldn't risk his life for men who are already dead-- sets him off completely. After those teenage years of aimless and empty frustration, his identity and self-image are so tied up in matters of succession and family history that to say that none of that even matters is a nearly unforgivable personal slight. There is nothing more important to him than this value of family. Even his desire for revenge against Cars and the Pillar Men is at its core a mission for the family that he has lost: both as a means to avenge his father, and a way to establish his identity. In the end, all he wants is that validation: the feeling that he is a worthy son and a worthy part of the Zeppeli line in general.
Abilities/Powers:
Athleticism:
He's not quite superhuman and can still be damaged and killed, but even without his abilities, Caesar is at a physical peak. He's a competent hand-to-hand fighter, with good reflexes, good fighting instinct, and the strength to back it up. And although his status as a Ripple user enhances his endurance and tolerance to pain some, it's not enough to put him past the level of a very exceptional baseline human (unless he specifically uses it to dull pain or heal a wound).
also he's a big ol beefcake but that's a parts 1-3 jojo standard so
Ripple (Hamon/Sendo):
Caesar, like his grandfather Will Zeppeli before him, is capable of utilizing Hamon, also known as Ripple, or Sendo. Only a select few possess the ability to use it effectively enough in combat, but Through careful breathing techniques, it channels the energy of sunlight through the body of the user to create a powerful, multipurpose energy. As Ripple is linked to breathing, it relies heavily on the ability of its user to do just that: if made unable to breathe, Ripple is unusable. Hindering the flow of blood in any way (blood loss, rapid temperature decrease, etc) also renders Ripple unusable.
--Attack
Ripple energy can imbue a user, or an object imbued with Ripple, with a greater amount of strength: for example, Will Zeppeli was able to split a large rock in half with a Ripple punch. The energy is capable of going through objects to attack (just kidding, Will gently touched a frog with his fist and broke the rock with Ripple, leaving the frog completely unharmed). It is especially effective against vampires and undead and other evil beings, to the extent of melting through their skin when the energy or an object imbued with the energy is used on them (i.e. Joseph Joestar using Ripple-infused string to wrap up and kill a Pillar Man), based on the idea that the power of the undead is the flip side of the coin of Ripple energy.
Objects usable as Ripple weapons tend towards organic objects (human hair, wool, oil, wine, noodles, a scarf with fibers made from beetles). Metals and other liquids are also shown to conduct Ripple.
Against normal humans, Ripple still hurts, of course-- but it would take a great deal of it to harm anyone to the level that it damages vampires and the like.
--Defense/Healing
Ripple energy can be used as a defense through using Ripple to repel an object: for example, Caesar once used repelling Ripple to go through a high-pressure sheet of oil (razor sharp and strong enough to slice the top off a pen) completely unharmed. It can also strengthen the surface of objects, such as when Caesar creates a shield (or enclosure) out of bubble. And although Caesar himself is not capable of this just yet, Ripple can also be used to heal injuries, to the extent that Jonathan Joestar once inadvertently brought dead blossoms on a tree back to life.
--Control
The bodies of living creatures can be controlled through the Ripple: Caesar once used Ripple on a woman and was able to control her movements thoroughly enough for her to fight Joseph Joestar to a standstill. The control is both initiated and concluded through physical contact (Caesar did so in the form of a kiss) and is not limited to human beings, as Joseph once controlled a pigeon through use of the Ripple.
Hamon can also be used to contain objects, such as holding the water inside an upturned glass by blocking its movement with a thin film of the energy, and even keeping a liquid in a specific shape when not held in by anything at all through the use of slightly more advanced Ripple technique.
--Movement
In opposition to the repelling technique, Hamon can also be used to stick to objects or to stick objects to each other. When used effectively, it can do things like turn disconnected objects into a rope connected by the energy (such as when Joseph used a string of icicles as a rope) or allow someone to scale a Hamon-conducting surface (i.e. a pillar covered in oil) by clinging to solid objects with Hamon.
Bubble Hamon:
Caesar's particular specialty is using the power of the Ripple on bubbles. Through a special soap solution that his clothes are coated in, he creates bubbles, charges them with the Ripple, and uses them as projectiles. He can launch single bubbles or large barrages of them, and can alter their shape and size (sharp, edged discs or powerful lenses to reflect light thousands of times and create lasers), keeping them from popping through the Ripple energy. He's also capable of creating large, difficult-to-pop bubbles as enclosures. The bubbles aren't completely limited to soap (most notably, he creates a bubble out of his own blood right before his death in-canon), and his Ripple isn't limited to what he can make bubbles out of, either.
JoJo Posing:
Like basically every other JJBA character, Caesar has the innate ability to pose really dramatically, and also totally unprompted.
It's an extremely important power, okay.
Items/Weapons: Wham's ring, a pack of cigarettes, and a lighter. (His clothes don't technically function as a weapon, but his jacket and gloves are coated in a soap solution that allows him to make bubbles for Ripple attacks more easily; he's not limited to making bubbles with just that soap solution, however. If that would count them for an item slot I'd be cool with giving up the ring.)
Sample Entry: Haven Test Drive: small threads, and if that's not allowed, 10 comments in one thread
Sample Entry Two:
The irony of a smoker wielding a lung-based power has never been lost on him.
Caesar shifts forward, resting his arms on the railing of Lisa Lisa's balcony. Venice fades in the twilight, thirty minutes away by boat; the end of his cigarette smolders gray and red and he takes a drag, exhaling a thin wisp of smoke through pursed lips. It isn't the best habit he's ever formed, but, hey-- a man deserves a vice or two. He deserves it, anyway. Now more than ever.
The fact that he could be having his last cigarette any day now isn't lost on him, either.
He could dwell on the ways this could all go wrong: what to do if Joseph dies, what to do if Lisa Lisa or their teachers cannot pull through, what they'll end up doing if Caesar ends up dying instead. But, he figures, those worries are useless. Five Ripple users, three Pillar Men, right? They'll succeed. They'll save the world. They have to.
He flicks ash into the ocean far far below. There's no other option, of course: none he cares to think too deeply about. Their strategies are solid. His strategy is solid. There's no way that they will lose.
Inside, a peal of laughter, unmistakably Jojo's, rings out; in spite of himself he feels his eyes roll and the corner of his mouth turning up. Figures that he's making trouble, even the week before they fight the Pillar Men, doesn't it? Caesar breathes smoke one last time, crushing the cigarette butt into an ashtray, and turns, following the sound.
It might do him good, at least once, to take a page out of Jojo's book and be frivolous while he's still got time. He can afford another little vice for now.
Contact Info:
Other Characters Played: Travis Touchdown, Tony Chu; apping in Gustavo Fring this round.
Requested apartment: With Joseph Joestar, please!
Character Name: Caesar Anthonio Zeppeli
Canon: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Canon Point: Episode 20, before channeling his Ripple energy away for Joseph.
Background/History: This is the Zeppeli family spirit, from the past to the future! It's the human spirit!
Personality:
We first meet Caesar Zeppeli when he’s at the top of his game for flashy, suave, and over-the-top: he
(Seriously, look at this showy asshole.)
In any case, Caesar's intent, i.e. the image of himself that he wishes to project, is crystal clear-- he's the cool one, and he is superior to Jojo in every way that he can be superior to the guy. He's a ladies' man, he's classy and and cultured and completely put together, he takes great pride in his Zeppeli blood, and he is very, very good at what he does.
And, of course, first impressions aren't necessarily reliable ones.
First of all, what's immediately evident in Caesar's nature is his immense haughtiness and pride. His first spoken line is to make himself look better at Jojo's expense, even: I'm FAR more presentable than THAT tactless, uncultured idiot. And to an extent, he is. Caesar actually does have a fairly solid grasp of social niceties, from looking good in a fancy restaurant to working government connections: he can look good in front of any girl he wants, and he can pull strings well enough to get favors from the German army. Which means that that pride isn't completely unfounded, because god damn does he he knows all of these things about himself, to say nothing of the talent for Ripple that runs in his blood. Caesar isn't shy about his own talents; if he's the best at something, he damn well will let everyone know that much if he can help it. He tries to be as straightforward as possible and is easily irritated by people who bullshit or do things halfway: Caesar does everything as thoroughly and impeccably as possible, because why would he (or anyone else) settle for less when he knows he can meet his full potential?
His competence, of course, doesn't make up for how horrendously petty he can get. Instead of working with Jojo, he talks shit about his family and picks a (literal) fight with him to prove that he's better, that he doesn't need to work with him, that a Joestar will simply drag a Zeppeli down once more. When things have calmed down, he calls Jojo out for challenging him to a game of cards and trying to cheat his way to a win... when he himself had been planning to cheat, as well. Tellingly, he doesn't acknowledge his own error and instead tries to pick another fight with Jojo-- as if getting caught screwing up was Jojo's fault rather than a result of his own hypocrisy. It isn't enough for him to simply be better: others, especially those he feels he is superior to, have to know it, even if that means having to fake it a little.
This inconsistency shows itself again and again, and though it isn't exclusively based in superiority it is always based in Caesar's actions placed alongside what he wants himself to look like. In other words, Caesar is always doing things that come into direct conflict with what he says about himself. The most obvious example is his friendship with Jojo. Even when they manage to get over themselves long enough for a positive relationship to take root, he's still denying his soft squishy feelings of friendship, all in the name of continuing to look better than Jojo. He only helped him because X idea was so stupid and predictable; he's checking on him because he wants to make sure his talent isn't surpassed, not because he's worried; he's not super relieved Jojo isn't dead, or anything, so you survived after all, huh, you must be one lucky guy.
Araki's profile of Caesar says it best: for the most part, he's an annoying guy who really, really likes to look cool.
In accordance with being The Universe's Largest Tsundere, how aloof he'll occasionally fancy himself to be belies his capacity to care-- sometimes, even, to care too much. For how much he tries to present the exterior of being calm and collected, Caesar’s actually a highly emotional person. He cares a great deal for his loved ones, and depending on the person and their level of closeness is fairly open about his affection, including on a physical level. He doesn't shy from initiating contact or hugs or hair ruffles or good-natured teasing (and, hell, he'll even do it to people he doesn't like: he condescends to Joseph before they're friends with a pat on the head). And when it comes to those that Caesar deeply respects, all bets are off. For a person like his Ripple coach, Lisa Lisa, Caesar wastes absolutely no time on hemming and hawing about his admiration-- he'll defend her and talk her up to anyone who'll listen, as well as go after anyone who dares to do or say anything ill toward her. It's not a stretch to imagine that he'd do the same (to a lesser degree) to anyone else he considers a good and reliable friend. Just about his only limitation in this respect is toward those he sees as competition, most notably Jojo, yet again. And even then he's still willing to grudgingly compliment Jojo. Just... not to his face.
It’s rather easy to stir his feelings, for better or for worse. On one hand, this results in a genuinely and deeply caring friend; on the other, it results in a very fatal personality flaw. He is fairly quick to judge and to fully throw himself into situations without first gaining a complete understanding: it isn’t that he acts without thinking so much as he thinks too quickly, assuming details too easily and taking things too closely to heart. In this way, his resolve, admirable as it can be, is also his greatest undoing. Caesar’s confidence is a great asset when well-founded, but should he dedicate himself to an ideal that’s wrong or risky from the get-go--his delinquent youth, his intended patricide, his desire for vengeance against Cars--he lacks the flexibility necessary to stop and consider whether pursuing these convictions is a good idea at all.
This also manifests as an occasional impracticality. Caesar is intelligent, naturally talented, and persistent: consistently capable of thinking outside the box, not so much. He values order and organization and things that make sense-- things that he's able to prepare for and plan out-- but when thrown for a loop or forced to think unconventionally, he'll falter. Yet again, this is another fatally exploitable flaw: Caesar doesn't always know how to react when presented with unexpected twists in a situation, giving a more creative thinker free reign to make a fool out of him while he tries to process the unknown element. Unless he's accompanied by a more flexible thinker. (Which is, coincidentally, why he and Joseph make such a good team: Joseph keeps him from operating so unflinchingly by-the-book, and he keeps Joseph grounded to reality, and the two of them are slowly influencing each other enough that Caesar's beginning to loosen up some.)
Caesar is also highly attached to his own personal values, the most important of which is his connection to his family. Along with an enormous potential for the Ripple, Caesar has inherited the Zeppeli legacy. The pride that he holds for his family name runs deep, but it wasn't always that way. His father Mario Zeppeli abandoned a 10-year-old Caesar and his four siblings, and Caesar's hatred and resentment for the man was intense enough that fell into violence and delinquency and vowed to kill him when he saw him again. Of course, when he did see him again, he learned that Mario was only protecting Caesar and his siblings from that ery legacy-- one of immense responsibility as well as immense tragedy. Caesar's father died before his eyes without even recognizing that the teenage boy he'd saved was his own son.
Therefore, his family history is both a point of pride and a topic of great sensitivity for Caesar. More than anything, he wants to fulfill his role as his father's son-- he idolizes his father (whom, pre-abandonment, he saw as the ideal father and man in general) and grandfather to compensate for the years he refused the Zeppeli name. Prodding at that-- when Joseph snaps that he shouldn't risk his life for men who are already dead-- sets him off completely. After those teenage years of aimless and empty frustration, his identity and self-image are so tied up in matters of succession and family history that to say that none of that even matters is a nearly unforgivable personal slight. There is nothing more important to him than this value of family. Even his desire for revenge against Cars and the Pillar Men is at its core a mission for the family that he has lost: both as a means to avenge his father, and a way to establish his identity. In the end, all he wants is that validation: the feeling that he is a worthy son and a worthy part of the Zeppeli line in general.
Abilities/Powers:
Athleticism:
He's not quite superhuman and can still be damaged and killed, but even without his abilities, Caesar is at a physical peak. He's a competent hand-to-hand fighter, with good reflexes, good fighting instinct, and the strength to back it up. And although his status as a Ripple user enhances his endurance and tolerance to pain some, it's not enough to put him past the level of a very exceptional baseline human (unless he specifically uses it to dull pain or heal a wound).
Ripple (Hamon/Sendo):
Caesar, like his grandfather Will Zeppeli before him, is capable of utilizing Hamon, also known as Ripple, or Sendo. Only a select few possess the ability to use it effectively enough in combat, but Through careful breathing techniques, it channels the energy of sunlight through the body of the user to create a powerful, multipurpose energy. As Ripple is linked to breathing, it relies heavily on the ability of its user to do just that: if made unable to breathe, Ripple is unusable. Hindering the flow of blood in any way (blood loss, rapid temperature decrease, etc) also renders Ripple unusable.
--Attack
Ripple energy can imbue a user, or an object imbued with Ripple, with a greater amount of strength: for example, Will Zeppeli was able to split a large rock in half with a Ripple punch. The energy is capable of going through objects to attack (just kidding, Will gently touched a frog with his fist and broke the rock with Ripple, leaving the frog completely unharmed). It is especially effective against vampires and undead and other evil beings, to the extent of melting through their skin when the energy or an object imbued with the energy is used on them (i.e. Joseph Joestar using Ripple-infused string to wrap up and kill a Pillar Man), based on the idea that the power of the undead is the flip side of the coin of Ripple energy.
Objects usable as Ripple weapons tend towards organic objects (human hair, wool, oil, wine, noodles, a scarf with fibers made from beetles). Metals and other liquids are also shown to conduct Ripple.
Against normal humans, Ripple still hurts, of course-- but it would take a great deal of it to harm anyone to the level that it damages vampires and the like.
--Defense/Healing
Ripple energy can be used as a defense through using Ripple to repel an object: for example, Caesar once used repelling Ripple to go through a high-pressure sheet of oil (razor sharp and strong enough to slice the top off a pen) completely unharmed. It can also strengthen the surface of objects, such as when Caesar creates a shield (or enclosure) out of bubble. And although Caesar himself is not capable of this just yet, Ripple can also be used to heal injuries, to the extent that Jonathan Joestar once inadvertently brought dead blossoms on a tree back to life.
--Control
The bodies of living creatures can be controlled through the Ripple: Caesar once used Ripple on a woman and was able to control her movements thoroughly enough for her to fight Joseph Joestar to a standstill. The control is both initiated and concluded through physical contact (Caesar did so in the form of a kiss) and is not limited to human beings, as Joseph once controlled a pigeon through use of the Ripple.
Hamon can also be used to contain objects, such as holding the water inside an upturned glass by blocking its movement with a thin film of the energy, and even keeping a liquid in a specific shape when not held in by anything at all through the use of slightly more advanced Ripple technique.
--Movement
In opposition to the repelling technique, Hamon can also be used to stick to objects or to stick objects to each other. When used effectively, it can do things like turn disconnected objects into a rope connected by the energy (such as when Joseph used a string of icicles as a rope) or allow someone to scale a Hamon-conducting surface (i.e. a pillar covered in oil) by clinging to solid objects with Hamon.
Bubble Hamon:
Caesar's particular specialty is using the power of the Ripple on bubbles. Through a special soap solution that his clothes are coated in, he creates bubbles, charges them with the Ripple, and uses them as projectiles. He can launch single bubbles or large barrages of them, and can alter their shape and size (sharp, edged discs or powerful lenses to reflect light thousands of times and create lasers), keeping them from popping through the Ripple energy. He's also capable of creating large, difficult-to-pop bubbles as enclosures. The bubbles aren't completely limited to soap (most notably, he creates a bubble out of his own blood right before his death in-canon), and his Ripple isn't limited to what he can make bubbles out of, either.
JoJo Posing:
Like basically every other JJBA character, Caesar has the innate ability to pose really dramatically, and also totally unprompted.
It's an extremely important power, okay.
Items/Weapons: Wham's ring, a pack of cigarettes, and a lighter. (His clothes don't technically function as a weapon, but his jacket and gloves are coated in a soap solution that allows him to make bubbles for Ripple attacks more easily; he's not limited to making bubbles with just that soap solution, however. If that would count them for an item slot I'd be cool with giving up the ring.)
Sample Entry: Haven Test Drive: small threads, and if that's not allowed, 10 comments in one thread
Sample Entry Two:
The irony of a smoker wielding a lung-based power has never been lost on him.
Caesar shifts forward, resting his arms on the railing of Lisa Lisa's balcony. Venice fades in the twilight, thirty minutes away by boat; the end of his cigarette smolders gray and red and he takes a drag, exhaling a thin wisp of smoke through pursed lips. It isn't the best habit he's ever formed, but, hey-- a man deserves a vice or two. He deserves it, anyway. Now more than ever.
The fact that he could be having his last cigarette any day now isn't lost on him, either.
He could dwell on the ways this could all go wrong: what to do if Joseph dies, what to do if Lisa Lisa or their teachers cannot pull through, what they'll end up doing if Caesar ends up dying instead. But, he figures, those worries are useless. Five Ripple users, three Pillar Men, right? They'll succeed. They'll save the world. They have to.
He flicks ash into the ocean far far below. There's no other option, of course: none he cares to think too deeply about. Their strategies are solid. His strategy is solid. There's no way that they will lose.
Inside, a peal of laughter, unmistakably Jojo's, rings out; in spite of himself he feels his eyes roll and the corner of his mouth turning up. Figures that he's making trouble, even the week before they fight the Pillar Men, doesn't it? Caesar breathes smoke one last time, crushing the cigarette butt into an ashtray, and turns, following the sound.
It might do him good, at least once, to take a page out of Jojo's book and be frivolous while he's still got time. He can afford another little vice for now.