JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 9: Silver Soul

Rebel Yell Part 2

There are over 1300 kilometers of beaches along the coastline of Florida, but this number surely must be higher, as the state often cannot decide whether it is land or water. The amount of swamps, canals, rivers, lakes, and islands make the state a maze of wetness. Head in any direction, and you will shortly arrive at a body of water, man-made or natural. Even if you happen to wander off into the ocean, you will be able to wade in its warm waters for quite a while, the shallows stretching on for much longer than expected.

It is fortunate that to Jolene, "the beach" meant only one place.

When Jolene was younger, her family would take a day off from their usual lives and head to Miami Beach. This meant time to walk along the shore and take a lot of pictures, but it also meant going to LaLaLand.

LaLaLand sold itself as an interactive children's entertainment center, a place the children could have fun in while the adults went to get drinks. LaLaLand, in reality, was more like a prison for the kids stuck there. It was mostly a giant playground made of splintering wood and sun-baked metal that burned anyone who touched it for too long. Tacky, paint chipped sculptures of uncomfortable looking creatures called "The LaLas" were scattered throughout the grounds. The only indoor areas, the only places with air conditioning, were the nurse's office and a lounge for the people in charge of watching the kids. They never cared if the kids got hurt, only if they tried to escape past the chain link fence that covered the perimeter.

She wasn't sure how he had found it, but Jibby knew a way out. There was an unlocked door behind the benches that led to a toolshed, and in it a window to freedom. Every time his parents left them at that place, they would carefully climb out and run to the ocean where they would play for hours. They kicked sand at each other until they got tired, then waited underneath the boardwalk until sunset, where they could see his parents going to get them, when they would sneak back in and get picked up.

Things were simpler then, Jolene thought, even if it was essentially the same thing.

Hide away from those who mean you harm. Jibby will lead the way.

At least as kids there wasn't a killer robot dog chasing her.

~~~

Thoko didn't even register death anymore. The red text spelling out GAME OVER meant nothing to him. He pressed the button to load from the last save and the game started again.

A voice came from in front of him. "Thoko."

Thoko continued playing.

"Thoko," Josuke asked again.

"Yeah, I'm listening," Thoko said, his body tilting to the side, though this game wasn't motion controlled.

"In the five minutes that it took me to check us in," Josuke asked, "where did Jolene go?"

Thoko jumped off of a cliff. It was a big risk, but he could wall-jump to skip at least two minutes of pointless button mashing. Just as he was about to reach the checkpoint, a fireball came out of nowhere and killed him. He cursed to himself.

"Yeah, I dunno, Jojo does that sometimes," Thoko answered, taking a sip from his virgin pina colada. They probably wouldn't have carded him, but Thoko really just wanted the coconut.

Josuke sighed.

"Do you have any idea where she might have gone?" he asked.

Thoko looked at Josuke before he restarted. The older man was leaning on the table and rubbing the bridge of his nose, lifting up his sunglasses, giving Thoko a better look at the marks on his face.