The year is 1888.
Jonathan Joestar and his brother Dio Brando are set to graduate as top students in their respective fields. However, an untimely accident results in the deaths of Jonathan and his father, leaving Dio to inherit the family fortune. Several months later, he marries a nurse from his hospital, Erina Pendleton. It is everything he wanted.
Elsewhere, to the south, spreading across Europe, is a plague of monsters, of the dead returning...
The year is 1938.
For nearly fifty years, the ultimate lifeforms Kars, Esidisi, and Wamuu, have ruled over Europe, turning it into a land of vampires and zombies. In the mountains of England, in the town known as Windknights, a group of humans continue to hide and resist vampire rule, led by the mysterious Lord Joestar.
Dino, Lord Joestar's grandson, is an active member of the resistance, working with his peers to kill vampires and undermine the rule of Windknights' Lord Bruford. One day however, a mission to receive refugees on a ship from the Americas goes awry, until a mysterious golden haired stranger swoops in and kills every vampire in one attack.
"My name is Giorno," he introduces himself, "Take me to Dio Brando."
And so begins a new battle...
Hidden in the mines of Windknights, this group of humans still fights to retain their humanity.
The Ultimate Lifeforms and their servants, both human and vampire.
1888-1920. ~2.8k words. An introduction to the AU through Erina's story, from nursing Dio back to health to her forced marriage to him, to going to war at his side.
Over the course of 2013 to 2017, I roleplayed the version of Jonathan from this AU on tumblr. While Jonathan plays a huge role in the backstory of this AU, he plays a relatively minor role "on-screen." Even so, it feels like a waste to let the work I put into that version of the character go to waste, so this section is dedicated to preserving Jonathan's about page. Do note that this information is, of course, rooted in Jonathan's roleplay stories, so it's very different from how things turned out in the AU proper.
Nicknames: Jojo, Jon
Age: Eternally 20
Arcana: The Hermit
Jonathan Joestar might seem familiar to many, but this version of the muscular young man wears unnatural red eyes, a mess of dark hair, pallid skin, and a hint of fangs just poking out from under his upper lip. He can typically be seen dressed in a rather ragged suit with a hooded black cloak on top. He is also incredibly cold to the touch, unpleasantly so.
The son of the wealthy George Joestar, Jonathan strove to be a gentleman even as a child. Even as a vampire, he has not lost this drive to stay a gentleman, and though racked with a constant thirst for human blood, still tries to be as kind as he can be to those around him. However, he has long since stopped trying to hold onto his humanity, and is perfectly willing to feed when necessary. He does try to keep his number of victims to a minimum, but the act of killing is no longer something he actively avoids.
Even so, Jonathan still tries to place others' needs over his own, trying to present himself as a pleasant man, if a little naive, to avoid causing conflict. He mainly tries to avoid fighting as much as possible, but when pushed, he prefers to use his Stand, Sacred Heart, for combat as this allows him to fight at a distance and avoid contact.
He carries with him the same stone mask that had turned him, two small red jewels, and a handful of notebooks filled with research on his condition. Due to prior adventures, he is fully aware of the existence of alternate universes, gray anonymous magic, and hopping across timelines.
As a vampire, Jonathan is physically stronger than a regular human, with heightened senses, and total control over every part of his body. He is incredibly tough and difficult to kill, as he possesses a regenerative ability, although how long the healing takes depends on how much blood he has consumed recently and what part of the body was injured.
His primary method of feeding is through his fingers, as he only needs to slip them under someone's skin to suck blood from them. He very, very rarely indulges in using his fangs, viewing it as a much more intimate way of feeding.
He is, of course, weak to the sun and anything that emulates its energy, particularly the Ripple. Burns from the sun and Ripple do not heal on their own, and he absolutely needs to feed in order to heal (sun)burns.
Perhaps it is an emotional response or a defensive mechanism that drives him to it, but he will occasionally simply go to sleep and not wake up until sometime later.
Type: Long-range Tool Stand
Power: D
Speed: C
Range: D
Durability: A
Precision: B
Potential: E
At some point in the past, Jonathan developed a Stand through sheer willpower (and from being around Stand users all the time). Swiftly named Sacred Heart, this Stand appears as black thorny vines originating from Jonathan, and he can easily manifest as many as he needs.
Jonathan's main use for it is utility, such as tying down targets or creating a web to stop a fall. He has even on one occasion used it to gain the advantage in a snowball fight and launch a number of snowballs all at once.
As in most versions of his story, Jonathan spent his youth with Dio, eventually discovering that the latter was poisoning their father for his inheritance. After confronting Dio about the medicine he was taking to George, Jonathan traveled to London to have the subtance analyzed. When this yielded no results, he resolved to find its source instead.
His search led him to Ogre Street, where he was attacked by a trio of thugs. As Jonathan held back his strength while fighting them, their leader, Speedwagon came to respect him for his kindness and swore to aid him in saving his father.
Jonathan soon returned to his home with Speedwagon and Wang Chen, the poison seller, in tow. With a small squad of policemen present, he prepared himself to confront Dio once more, not knowing that his broher had been plotting to murder him with the very stone mask he had studied for years.
In this world, Dio saw little reason to test the mask, confident that its needles could kill Jonathan immediately. When he returned to Joestar manor, he was faced with accusations concerning his scheme. With little choice but to otherwise surrender, he tricked Jonathan into letting him get close and, pulling out the stone mask, attempted to stab him.
But their father had been listening to the entire exchange, and saw Dio's trickery. He rushed between the two brothers, taking the hit for his son, while Dio placed the mask over Jonathan's face and used his blood to activate it.
In one fell swoop, Dio Brando had eliminated both Joestar men. Now, he only had to deal with the witnesses...
Behind him, George Joestar lay dying, eyes trained on the corpse of his son. He was the first to see, just as his vision began to fade, Jonathan's body twitching and slowly starting to pick itself off the ground.
When Jonathan regained his senses, he found his hands around a terrified Speedwagon's neck. Releasing his friend and backing away, he quickly realized that he had become a monster, and that the stone mask had done this to him.
Nearby, Dio was surrounded by undead policemen, and Jonathan immediately understood he had been the one to create these zombies. He made short work of them, then, his gaze lingering for only a moment over his father, his brother, then his friend, fled through a window and into the cold of the night.
Racked by a hunger and thirst that he could not comprehend yet, Jonathan ran into the woods behind his family estate, knowing only that he needed to get far away from other people. Over the next week, he learned what he could of his changed body. The sun scalded the skin right off his arm, filling him with incredible pain unlike any other. Though he had always been strong, he was now at least ten times stronger. He could leap from tree to tree in single bounds.
And, most importantly, he discovered he could stave off his hunger with pain. Even as he returned to civilization, Jonathan went to extremes and fought his desire for blood by mutilating his inhuman body and focusing on the pain as his body mended itself. Without consuming blood, the healing process would take hours at a time. Each second he was in pain was another second that humans were safe from him.
In London, Jonathan sought out his alma mater, slipping into his university's library in the dead of night. A copy of his research and writing on the stone mask as a student of archaeology had been accepted into the libray just weeks ago. With his own research and several literature about vampires in hand, Jonathan desperately began to gather whatever new information he could find about the mask.
There was little news related to the stone mask. Jonathan lingered where he could and asked questions when he could not, keeping his ears open for anything at all. It took weeks, but eventually he heard talk of an entire wall of stone masks. Alarmed, Jonathan slowly, under cover of night, made his way to Rome in Italy, where the rumors had originated. There, he talked his way into the archaeological dig, and soon came face to face with a multitude of stone masks framing three men embedded into the wall.
Perhaps he had chanced upon them at the right time, or perhaps they had sensed the presence of a vampire. No matter the reason, the three men awoke, killing everyone present save for Jonathan.
Awed by these men who introduced themselves as the Pillar Men, Jonathan asked them what they knew of the mask. Their leader, Kars, informed him that they had been the stone mask's creators. These were masks designed to remove all limit on human potential, to unlock one's brain and draw out abilities beyond imagine.
Is there a cure, Sir Kars? These words slipped from Jonathan's mouth, and, at once, Kars understood that Jonathan could be useful to him.
The only cure is the Red Stone of Aja.
Desperate for anything that could return his humanity to him, Jonathan heeded Kars' words, and vowed to find the Red Stone for him...