Chapter 3

96 Quite Bitter Beings is the third chapter of the Apocalyptic Souls RP.

Summary
Vince, Izzy, and Maikeru have dinner together. After Maikeru leaves, Vince and Izzy goof around, much to the chagrin of their neighbor. Unfortunately for them, their neighbor is also a Stand user, and he tries to make sure they never disturb him again.

Transcript
Notarou sits in his room at the inn.

Notarou: "Blessed eyes..." He repeats. "They saw the stands... those who see the stands must be stand users themselves... even if they don't know it. Perhaps I should ask around. See what people know about these 'Four Horsemen'..."

Isabella was stuck in her apartment, passed out on the couch, snoring as ever.

Vince was chilling in his room, finishing up the newest Avenged Sevenfold album, aptly named Avenged Sevenfold. He wasn't totally on board with their first two albums, but the sound of the last two was beginning to grow on him. As the sweet acoustics of Dear God drifted through his ears, he thought about his friends and family. Were they busy right now, or did they forget about him?

Isabella then loudly yells, since she was alone in her apartment, she didn’t care if her neighbors heard her, and she was bored.

Isabella: “UUghHhhH....” She turned off her TV, and slowly slid off of her couch, landing on the floor. “I’m boredddddd..”

Meanwhile, Maikeru wanted to have a big dinner right then and there, but that probably wouldn't sit well with him as he traveled to Isabella's hotel room, so he decided against it and went on his way. When he arrived, he tapped on the door gently, a little tired from his trip. Isabella slid to the door, struggling but succeeding to open it.

Maikeru: “Why are you on the floor?”

Isabella: ”I’m boreeed....” she said, muffled because she put her hands on her face. “Invite yourself in.”

Maikeru: “I will be cooking dinner here because it’s a big one. We could also invite Vince.”

Isabella: “''Oh! Good idea.''” She sat up and called Vince. “Elllooooooo....?” Isabella impatiently said into her phone.

Vince jumps at the sudden ringing of his phone.

Vince: "Hey, who is it?"

Isabella: “''It’s me Vincey! Howzabout you come over to my apartment and me, you, and Maikeru have dinner together?''”

Vince: "Sounds fantastic! I was just getting bored! I'll be over in... wait, you never told me where you were staying."

Isabella: “''Oh! Eheheheh... sorry! It’s located around Meadows Way. My apartment number is 7 and it’s the first floor.''”

Vince: "I'll be over in 20 minutes, unless the cops catch me speeding."

Isabella: “Ya better be quick enough so they don’t see ya!” She chuckles, and hangs up.

Vince runs over the curb and drifts the car into a parking space, going from 65 to 0 miles per hour and absolutely smoking the tires. He rushes inside, yelling to the lady at the counter,  "...visiTING A FRiend..." as he sprints by.

Isabella then decides to slowly slide onto the floor and groan. Again.

Isabella: “APPLE MAN, HE'S TAKIN’ A BIT… Oh, nevermind I think I hear ‘im.”

Maikeru: “I’ll get the door, slow-poke.”

Isabella continues to lie on the floor, and just gives a thumbs up.

Vince: "HEY, I'M HERE!" He yelled through the door.

Maikeru went to open the door.

Isabella: “Eyyyyyyyyy howzit goin” she said muffled, not bothering to move an inch.

Vince: "YEE-FRICKIN-HAA, I WAS GETTIN BORED! THE BRO TRIO REUNITED ONCE AGAIN!"

Isabella: “YEAAAAAAAA!”  She slides over to Vince, not wanting to get up.

Maikeru: “So what should we eat?”

Vince: "How about Chicago-style Beef Sandwiches?" Vince bends over and picks up Izzy, grinning. "I'm a little homesick, so that'd make me feel fine."

Isabella: “UAUUGH” Is the only noise she makes while being picked up.

Vince: "There, there, silly goose, you must be hungry. Where's all your energy?”

Isabella: “Well, I did workout yesterday, so I’m pretty heccin tired.” She lazily flops her arms around.

Vince: "Glad to see you're trying to better yourself! But that's only half the battle. If you don't eat enough, you're gonna end up hurting yourself."

Isabella: “''Haha, I wish. My self confidence has been acting up so I’ve been forgettin’ to eat.''” Isabella then slowly falls back onto the floor. “Man, why is my floor so comfortable?”

Vince: "How do you forget to eat? Does your stomach growl and you just sit there and say, 'bad bad kitty, no growling'?" He said "...By the way, Maik, how's the food coming?" She then loudly laughs.

Isabella: “''Nah, not really. It’s just become a bad habit of where if I’ve been busy, I’ll forget. And my stomach really doesn’t growl a lot. So I won’t notice.''”

Maikeru: “''...And, done. There you go, have at it.''”

Isabella: “''Oh! Sweet! Food!''” She then quickly gets up like a dog would when they hear the word ‘treat’.

Vince: "Well, now that you've got food in front of ya, have some! I'm not gonna stand by and watch my friend starve!"

Isabella then looks at Vince smugly and walks back to her couch.

Isabella: “''Yes. You. Will.''”

Maikeru: “Bruh, so you’re gonna make me throw away the food or what.”

Vince: "Nuh-uh, you're getting some if it means I've gotta bring it to you and feed you myself!" Vince grabs two plates and hops on the couch. "Say, whatcha watchin'?"

Isabella: “Uh-“ she then blushes slightly. “''Damn, My plan failed. I was watching Assassination Classroom. I just started.''”

Vince: "Nice, I've heard of it, but I haven't seen it. Mind if I watch with you?"

Isabella: “Sure!” She says while putting a purple blanket over the both of them and turning on her TV.

Maikeru: “Uhhh actually guys, I have something I gotta do, uhh, I’ll see you later bye!” He said as he opened and jumped through a window.

Vince: “Oh uh, bye.”

Isabella: “OHOKAYBYEEEEE” She quickly yells before going to close the window.

After a while, Vince asks

Vince: "Why's the teacher an octopus?”

Isabella: “I dunno, he’s an alien thing, I haven’t gotten far, at least we’ll both be new to it!”

Vince: "Ohhhhh. That would make more sense."

Isabella: “''Yeah. After a couple of episodes, do you wanna play some video games on my PlayBox 3?''” Isabella looks at Vince enthusiastically.

Vince: "Absolutely! I haven't gotten my hands on it yet, what games you got?"

Isabella: “''I got Goddess of War, SWA (Stealy Wheely Automobiley), F-Mega Remastered, and more. Those are the main ones I play now.''”

Isabella slowly slides off the couch onto the floor, again. She screams into a pillow she took with her.

Isabella: “AAAAAAAAA-“ She yells into the pillow again, it being muffled.

Vince: "Hey, Izzy... you doin' alright? You need a hug or somethin'?"

Isabella: “''1. F-Mega. 2. Get ovah heah, I need a hug.''” She raises her hand up but continues to cover her face.

Vince: "Mmm, thanks for picking." Vince slides onto the floor next to Izzy, hugging her in the process.

Isabella: “Heehee, big McThankies from McSpankies.”  Isabella hugs him back.

Vince: "Hehe, if you want cheap food with taste, put McSpanky's in your face."

Isabella: “I’m very tempted to pass out now, but I won’t just for your sake.”

Vince: "It's fine if you fall asleep, just let me put you somewhere more comfortable. The floor is unbefitting of your graces."

Isabella had already slightly passed out in the process, so all she said was:

Isabella: “Mmmmmgggok.....”

Vince proceeded to play F-Mega Remastered while Izzy slept on the couch. Isabella decided to be a weirdo, so she woke up, went to her piano in the corner, and started playing Apocalypse Please by Muse.

Vince: "This sure is some Pod-Racing music, huh?"

Isabella: “Hee hee, yes, and I like this song.” She said with sleep in her voice. After Isabella finished the song on her piano, she slowly walked back to the couch, and landed wherever and proceeded to sleep.

Vince pauses the game, sneaks over to the piano, and proceeds to play Sonata V by John Cage. (It really doesn't sound good though) All Isabella could muster was “''Hee hee.... funky music...''”

Vince: "Time to wake you up..." He starts playing (really badly) Staying Alive by the Bee Gees.

Isabella then sleepy walks over to Vince.

Isabella: “''What the hell… That sounds horrible... move over, lemme play sumthin...''”

Vince: "I'm playing the piano. What, gonna make me stop?"

Isabella: “''Yes, I’m gonna play better. Here.''” She plays Gymnopédie No.1 by Erik Satie. “That’s way better”

Vince: "O-oh... that's actually nice..." Vince starts to feel a little drowsy.

Isabella: “Duh.” She continues to play, seeing out of the corner of her eye that Vince looks tired. Isabella then misses a note, so she gets mad and slams the keys. “auGhH”

Drifting off, Vince almost doesn't notice the thing crawling across the outside of the window...

Wait. Thing?

Vince: "Shh, Izzy, something's here..." He whispers.

Isabella: “ughhhhh… Don’t tell me it’s a Stand...” She whispers.

With the two of them quiet, they can hear scratching in the walls, on the walls outside, underneath the floor, everywhere. The realization that they're surrounded stabs Vince like an icicle through the chest.

Vince: "Shit, let's get outta here!"

The two get outside, and find the building covered in dog-sized cockroaches.

Vince: "Ah-eww, what the hell?" Vince forces out.

Isabella: “''W-what the... sickkkk.. That’s.... freaky..''”

At the same time a man walks out of the motel, all of the cockroaches look at Vince and Izzy.

Man: "Ugh, you two were making such a racket. I couldn't sleep, and now I feel tired. You know what puts me to sleeeep? A full stomach." At that point, all of the cockroaches' mandibles start clicking.

"Go forth, my 96 Quite Bitter Beings, and take care of these pests!"

Vince: "My car's right over there! You drive, I'll fight them off!" Vince yells.

Man: "Ah-ah-ah, you won't get away that easily. My Bitter Beings will chase you down to the ends of the Earth, now that they have your scent. You really oughta just give up."

Isabella: “''Oh lord! Why the hell is it roaches....''” Isabella panted.

Vince: "I don't know, JUST DRIVE PLEASE THEY'RE ALMOST HERE"

Isabella then quickly drove off, yelling “NYOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM” In the process. Vince, hanging out the passenger window, uses Space Oddity to punch two cockroaches, which crunch under his fists.

Vince: "Augh, this is disgusting!" he whines.

Isabella: “NYOOOO- tell me about it- NYOOOMMMMMMM”

The cockroaches match the speed of the car, gaining slowly. Space Oddity kicks three more, knocking them off the car. However, their mandibles take small chunks of metal out of the back.

Vince: "Shit." He mutters.

Isabella: “''Oh geez. Hol up.''” She turns on the radio, which is conveniently playing ‘Tokyo Drift’ and then starts to speed up. “You got any ideas on places to go!?”

Vince: “I don't know where to go, he said they'd follow us anywhe-AAUGH!" Vince yells. He missed a cockroach on the roof, and it latched itself onto his arm. Punching it, he knocks off its body. However, its head remains latched to his arm.

Isabella uses her stand to pry the head off, and weirdly sings along in a panicked voice.

Isabella: “I WonDEr iF You KnOw How ThEY LIVe In TokYo iF yOu sEen It ThEn You mEaN iT-“

Vince: "ThEn YoU KnOw YoU hAvE tO gO" Vince stammers, trying to stop the bleeding."U-uh... well, I-I don't know if I-I'm in much shape to s-s-stop all 96, as-s-suming that's how many there are, s-so we'll have to take out the us-ser." The head had not only bitten Vince, it had also chewed into his arm.

Isabella: “AuGh FuC-“ Isabella simultaneously tries to heal Vince with her stand, using a healing flower, and trying to pry off more of the roaches from the car, WHILE driving.

Vince: "Do y-you think running them over will w-w-work? Either that, or g-get to the user..."

Isabella: “H-how ab-bout... running the u-user over...?” She looks over at Vince and the road, back and forth.

Vince takes a deep breath, his arm mostly mended.

Vince: "Go get that sonovabitch!" With that, he leans out the window, and lets loose a Stand Rush, smashing seven cockroaches.

Isabella then takes a sharp turn, heading back to the user. This. Was. Hell.

Isabella: “GET READY FUCKER!”

Vince turned to face forward. He could almost make out the silhouette of the user in the distance.

Vince: "Bet he won't expect this!" he hollers. "Wait, I've got an idea, drive slightly to his left, I'll catch him!"

She then gets closer and closer, sweating as she drives.

Isabella: “This'll be so fucking efficient” She then slowly but surely drives to the left, wanting a perfect opportunity.

Vince: "Steady, steady..." Space Oddity manifests out of the passenger-side window.

Isabella: “Come on!” Isabella yells, looking back and forth but still driving.

At this point the user's face is visible, and it bears a look of fear.

Vince: "Punch it!" He yelled.

Isabella: “AAACK!” she yells, impatient for this to be over.

They reach the user doing a good 95 mph. Space Oddity does not grab the user.

It CLOTHESLINES HIM.

He hits the dirt so hard, the roaches disappear almost immediately.

Vince: "EAT DIRT, SHITBAG!" Vince screams triumphantly.

Isabella: “HOLY SHIT”

Vince: "WOOO! Wow. That was a rush! Haha. Ah... what now?" The car slows to a stop.

Isabella pants, throwing her head back and closing her eyes.

Isabella: “''I- hah... I’m not sure...''”

Vince: "Maybe we should call Jack or something, though he probably won't be up. Or search that guy we just DESTROYED"

She laughed and tilted her head to look at Vince, weakly smiling.

Isabella: “''Yea.... we should see the damage..''”

They pull up to the guy they demolished. They check his pockets, recovering a faded driver's license that reads Deron Deis. They also find a Moab Megachurch pamphlet.

Vince: "Huh, this guy was a regular at Church. His behavior didn't show it."

Isabella: “J-Jesus.... We got ‘em for s-sure..” She said covering her mouth.

Vince: "We should probably give Jack a call, tell him what happened, and what we found. He's an adult, he'll know what to do."

Isabella: “Haha, apuesto a que este tipo también era racista.” She said, in spanish. “''Oh, uh. Yeah call him.''”

Leafing through the pamphlet, reading their depictions of God's wrath, and how His time of forgiveness has ended, Vince tells Izzy,

Vince: "You were probably right about him being a racist. Look at this bull."

She laughs.

Isabella: “''Este tipo era un idiota de mierda. We just wanted to hang out.” Isabella then leans down to the man, flips him off, and yells “¡Vete a la mierda!''”

Vince calls Jack.

Vince: "Ring ring, you there, Jack? We just had an encounter you might want to check out."

Jack: "...Fine, where are you?" He said as he sighed.

Vince: "We're in front of Izzy's apartment. The guy's dead. Well, he attacked us with a Stand that was 96 giant cockroaches, but we clotheslined the shit outta him at 96 mph."

Jack: "Just give me a few minutes." Jack got in his car and started driving there "Ok, so I guess you need me to clean this up?"

Isabella: “Ehhhh.... I guess...?” She gets up and shrugs.

Vince: "Yeah, we'd rather not go to jail for murder."

Izzy chuckles nervously.

Vince: "Did anyone... see us?"

Isabella then visibly stiffens.

Isabella: “Oh shit.”

Jack arrives at the place and gets out of his car.

Jack: “Let’s get to work.”

A grey glob of nanobots detached from Jack and slowly ate away the corpse, since it would still be considered biomass to consume. The body is gone now after being consumed with no trace of remains.

Jack: "The body is gone and I will speak to a person in my company who deals with these sorts of things. He will make a cover up for where the person went." Jack says this fully illustrating in everyone's minds how powerful Jack is, just because of his money and connections.

Vince: "I mean, it's nighttime, as long as we stay outta the light, we should be fine, right?" Vince halfheartedly murmurs.

Isabella: “U-uh, okay.” She continues to look around worried.

Jack: "Anybody who saw anything will either disappear or be bribed, don't worry."

Vince: "Hey, Izzy? Let's go home, I think we need a rest after that. Oh, and, thanks again, Jack.”

Isabella: “Ok.” Was all she could muster now. She just killed a person.

Jack: "Yeah. Just try not to kill someone out in the open next time, so I don't have to spend as much money bribing or killing people."

Jack drove back to his hotel room, and some people from Jack’s company came and took care of the murder and any witnesses. The people from Jack’s company caused a few witnesses to… Disappear, because they didn't cooperate.

Vincenzo and Isabella both went back into her apartment.

Vince: "Got a shower I could borrow? I feel like those roaches were dirty, even if they were Stands."

Isabella: “''Yeah. Go on right ahead.''”

Vince: "Thanks a bunch." He showered quickly.

Isabella: “Aghhhhhh, time for me to shower.” Isabella got off the couch.

Vince comes out dressed.

Vince: "The water's warm already, go ahead."

Isabella: “Mmmmmmmm clean timeeeee”

Vince sits on the couch and continues F-Mega Remastered where he left off. Isabella goes to shower, and comes out after a bit with a Sailor Moon shirt on and shorts.

Vince: "Oh. Nice shirt."

Isabella: “''Ha. Thanks. You know, I feel like every time I’m with you, it doubles the chance we’ll bump into an enemy stand user.''” Isabella sits next to Vince

Vince: "Can I stay here? I'm frankly too skittish to want to leave, even though it's probably safe."

Isabella: “''Yeah. I was gonna ask you that anyways. Plus I’ve crashed at your place several times now so you should return the favor.''”

Vince: "Thanks a ton!" Vince gives Izzy a big hug. Isabella just pats Vince on the head.

Vince: "Hey, I noticed you were speaking Spanish back there. Is English your second language?"

Isabella: “''No it’s my first. But since my mom is Hispanic I learned Spanish.''”

Vince: "Ahh. I get it. I don't know too much, since my Grandpa died when I was young, but he spoke some Italian around us. We called him Nonno, Italian for Grandpa."

Isabella: “I only knew 1 of my grandma’s out if my entire family.”

…

Isabella: “''Hey, Vince. Wanna hear sumthin’ weird?''”

Vince: "You alright?"

Isabella: “Yes… I can make people get baked with my Stand.”

Vince: "You wanna get baked. I can't begin to tell you how bad of an idea this is, which is why I wanna do it so badly."

Isabella: “I know.” she smirks.

Vince: "Got a lighter?"

Isabella: “Uhhh I think..”

Vince: "It's fine, do your thing and let's boof it up."

Isabella: “Haha, I’m gonna regret existing so much after this” she said with a lighter in her hand and her stand activated

Vince: "What's there to regret? Getting high with a friend's gotta be fun, at least I think, I've never done it before."

Isabella: “You wanna do the honors?” Isabella holds the lighter out to Vince

Vince: "Hell yeahhhhhh..."

Isabella: “''Heheheheh... baked time… Damn *cough* I shoulda used my inhaler before this or something''”

Vince: “*cough cough* "It's not you-"*cough* "It's me I swear, I'm just inexperiencedddd..."

Vince: "Hey. Hey. HEY. Hey, what if these Stand things are, like, projections of our personalities or somethin'? Like, what if mines the Space Guy because my, like, dreams are sooo high up? Yeah... You must know a looot about plants... cus that healing one you gave me? It probably, like, saved my life. That roach probably, like, chewed my artery open. I was gonna die of blood loss."

Isabella: “''Hee hee, your life juice wuz... spillin out of your arm..''”

"N..No, I'm bein totally seriousss. I would have totally died. I, like, owe you my life."

Isabella flips over to face the ceiling.

Isabella: “Ehh.... it’s fineeeeee..” she giggles again.

Vince: "Like, I'd be dead from some stuuuupid bug. I wouldn't have gotten to live out my dream. You got a dream? A purpose?"

Isabella: “''I just... wanna find... lov.. and drawwwww... I went to a fancyyyy school just because of my drawwingsss..''”

Jack: "I have a sneaking suspicion that those kids are doing something that will end in them oding on some drug or end in very bad life choices" Jack said, because at this point he could basically sense when the children were doing something bad.

Vince: "What...a...coincidence. I totally wanted to start a family too. Like, imagine waking up next to the, like, love of your life, and going down and making breakfast for your kidssss..."

Isabella giggles once more.

Isabella:“''Man.... that’s just ... weird..''”

Vince: "You-you think that's like, a common dream for humans to have?"

Isabella: “''I g-guessss..? Some people just wanna have funnnn..''”

Vince: "I-I meann... mayyybe I can, like, understand that, but, like, what's the point if the person you're 'having fun' with doesn't, like, love you?"

Jack decided to call Isabella, since he couldn't shake the feeling that they were doing something really really bad.

Isabella: “''Thennn..... you just gotta.. suck it up ya know...?''” Isabella decided to ignore the phone ringing.

Jack: "Well if they die or get sent to jail, that's their fault." Jack said, putting his phone away and then he proceeded to get drunk and pass out in his room.

Vince: "Fffffffigurativelyyyyy... or literallllyyyy?"

Isabella: “B-both....?.?”

Vince: "Aaaaaaalllright, I guesssss I'm downnn."

Isabella: “Haha, whattt..??”

Vince: "I guesss I had a chhhange of heartttt. I mean, it's just, like, an actionn, more or lesssss."

Isabella: “''It’s all over the placeeee.... that’s how I describe ittt''”

Vince: "Dddid you, lllike, fall asssssleep or somethinggg?"

Isabella: “''I dunno..... ask the guy who created sleeepppppp....''”

Vince: "Ohh, I thought you werrrre gonna, like, take a nnnnap."

Isabella: “''Haha nahnnh... I’d be bored in my sleep,, cuz ur not thereeeee''”

Vince: "I bet the guy who invvvventedd sleep was named, like, Thomas Ssssleeep, or something dumb like thattt."

Isabella: “''Or likeeeee, sleep Mann..... the person who named him that didn’t even know what it meant when they did.....''”

Vince: "They should, like, make a Stand that can bring people together in, like the dreeeeam worlllld. Got any orange juice? I just got, like, this massive craving for juice."

Isabella: “''Haha.... wanna race to my fridgeee.. to get juice....?''”

Vince: "B-but what if you trip meee? You could like, tie my feets up with vinessss. That'd be unfairrr."

Isabella: “You can use ur,,, stand tooooo..”

Vince: "Y-y-you're on!"

Isabella stands up, but starts to do the splits.

Vince uses his Space Bubble to create a zone with zero gravity. He floats to the kitchen.

Isabella: “''Oh nooooo... haaaa''”

Isabella uses vines to pull herself to the kitchen. Vince floats out of the area-of-effect of the Space Bubble, and lands on the kitchen tile.

Isabella: “''Eh.... I’m almosttt.. thereeeeee''”

Isabella uses her vines to attempt to open the fridge and get juice, but ends up grabbing Vince.

Vince: "...heehee, that tickles..."

Isabella: “''Ha... whoopsie..''”

Vince: "H-hey."

Isabella: “Whattt....?”

Vince: "U-umm... I think I like you..."

Isabella: “''Haha.... nice.. I dooooo too''”

Vince: "H-haha..."

Isabella: “''M-man... forget the juice...''”

Vince: "Y-yeah..."

Isabella slowly slides herself over to Vince on the floor.

Isabella: ”H-hi”

Vince: "H-hey..."

Isabella: “U-uh,...”

Vince: "I-I should probably tell you, I've never had a girlfriend b-before..."

Isabella: “''Haha.... I’ve never d-dated anyone before either..''”

Vince: "Wanna do, uh, y'know...?"

Isabella: “...S-sure”

 To be continued… 🡆