Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Shadowed Suspicion Chapter 404

[madimpossibledreamer]

Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: Johan gets some unexpected answers in the steam baths.
Word Count: 1630
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS

        Xander’s very happy about not being alone for this. Most of it is the kind of stuff he’d expected—having to get somewhat undressed for it, and the setup looking like a stone igloo, it being kind of like a cross between a sweat lodge and a sauna. It’s even more old-fashioned with the hot rocks and ceramic containers of water right next to it. He hadn’t been expecting for the owner to not be alone. The old man presumably running the experience doesn’t even look like he has any teeth as he smiles and non-verbally welcomes them in. And he hadn’t expected the man to barricade the entrance after the fact, though, so they can’t leave, and jumps slightly despite himself. Then, he sits by the glowing rocks in the dim light and splashes water onto them, causing steam to rise. Only it’s not just steam. It smells of something else, too. If this is some kind of trap, it would make a fairly effective one. The old man doesn’t have to be physically intimidating to be dangerous. Even if he’s not secretly a demon in disguise, he could have a Stand or something of that nature.
        “Relax, please,” the owner tells him, making herself comfortable. If she’s not just trying to put them at ease, she’s actually here to relax, too. He’d feel bad about interrupting that tranquility if not for the fact that this is a matter of life and death. “That is, after all, the purpose of this place, the reason the shaman gets up in the morning. A chance to get away from your worry and troubles of your normal life. What you’re smelling is the incense, mostly peppermint.” The others might be cooking herbs, too, and if Andrew had actually been able to join them he might have been able to identify them by smell alone. It’s not like Johan has that ability. Josie had never really been much of one for cooking when he’d been growing up, and even when he’d gotten his own place he hadn’t really bothered with it much.
        And then, as if sensing his skepticism, the owner adds, “There’s even herbal tea, if you think that would help.”
        His immediate reaction is, “I’m not much of a tea guy, sorry.” It’s...less accurate than he’d thought to begin with. There’s enough good memories of tea from the Joestars gleaned through Pretender. He’s definitely not going to sort that out here, though, and resolves that if he ends up liking tea, it’s going to be on his own terms, and not from a bunch of memories that aren’t even really his.
        “I’ll have a little,” Robin volunteers, more to be polite than out of genuine interest, Xander suspects. It’s the shaman that pours the tea into a very small cup and offers it to Robin with another smile.
        “But feel free to do with your time here what you please—lying down, walking around, sitting still, talking. Everything here is meant to be cleansing to mind and body.” She settles down, practically falling asleep in the semi-universal indication that she doesn’t actually want to talk further. Unfortunately, that doesn’t match up with Xander’s plans.
        “I’d guess being the owner of a Way Station even in a quieter town like this must be a little stressful,” he starts. “Particularly with construction going on.”
        “You’re not very subtle,” the owner mock-complains, opening one eye to squint at him in more of a glare.
        “I’m not trying to be,” he admits, and sees the slight smile at the corner of her mouth. “I didn’t think I’d have to be. You weren’t.” She’d been practically twisting their arms to try this out. He’s not going to pretend she’d managed to catch him unawares or anything.
        “I can act surprised if you want,” Robin adds suddenly, dropping the pretense like he wasn’t paying attention. He seems to be cautiously enjoying the tea, and so far he seems to be perfectly fine, with no side effects.
        “There’s no need for any of that, if we’re all speaking plainly. You are visitors, after all. You came here seeking something—there is no other reason to visit another place far from home—but as a visitor, you are not familiar with the area. How will you know without being told?” She’s definitely sharper than she looks.
        “Well, we would have read the local pamphlets, but there weren’t any in the lobby,” Johan agrees. He’s not sure if the others had picked up any with their little library visit, but he thinks all they’d managed to find were maps, maybe a history of the town, but nothing condensed. Jotaro would be helpful in this regard; he’d had to do a lot of reading for his PhD, so he was used to that kind of thing. For the rest of them, they might need the summarized version.
        “Ah, is that common practice elsewhere? I’ll definitely consider it; some of the local businesses might like to advertise, and we can discuss the history of our fair city and its attractions. We might even have a special one for our local market, if any of them have had a particularly good harvest, and Nicte’s locally famous for her blankets...” That seems like the perfect conversational starter; like any good entrepreneur, she seems to have smelled an opportunity. “We don’t tend to have too many visitors, you understand, Paxil being one of the best-kept secrets of the Americas. We don’t advertise or anything like that. You see it all the time; some magazine gives your city a ‘best tourist destination’ or ‘one of the best places to live in America’ and as if overnight you don’t recognize your city.”
        “I can’t imagine,” Xander tells her truthfully. Buffy and Willow would agree if they were here.
        “You didn’t have the misfortune of such an outside recommendation, then?” The thought seems to really bother her. It’s unclear whether the shaman is even really listening as he throws more water on the rocks, but the distraction of the glow helps Johan think through his answer. He’d try to see what the others thought if they were here, but Robin isn’t giving much in the way of an indication, probably because he doesn’t really have an idea of what they should do, here. He’d heard a little about Sunnydale from Johan’s own stories, half of which he probably didn’t believe (which has him, oddly, feeling like Joseph, even though every word is true; Joseph at least was prone to exaggeration, while if anything Xander minimizes his own contributions in the stories).
        No need to risk it, he decides. “Not really. I guess you could call us a tourist town, but it’s not through any effort on our part. Small town in California you wouldn’t have heard of. I think the only reason anyone bothered was we were close to L.A. but didn’t have the price tag—that, and we had something resembling a beach. Oh, and I think we had one mayor that prioritized tourism, but he got removed from office before the end of his term.”
        Robin shrugs, setting down the empty cup. “I don’t think anything anyone says or any new people would change New York City. When you get to be a big city, you’re kind of immune to that kind of thing. People know the reputation, and they either like that kind of character or don’t.”
        She looks kind of shocked. “I suppose that makes sense, but I can’t imagine wanting to live in such a large place, where you don’t know your neighbors! That being said, I’m glad you’re both spared, if under different conditions. I don’t know about you, but we value our way of life. This isn’t said to be unwelcoming, mind you! Just that I hope you’re not here to cause a disturbance.”
        “We were hoping to meet an acquaintance of ours—another traveler like ourselves,” Johan tells her. There’s no need to elaborate about the fact that they’re actually enemies. They are hoping to intercept him before he can actually pull off his plan.
        “There’s a few currently staying in the Way House, and a few came to camp as well, but it’s not like we track everyone at all times. This is a free country. Not entirely free, of course—we have our own Sheriff. Actually had to arrest someone a few years back.” She leans in, as if about to impart a juicy bit of gossip. “A man named Zeppeli, arrested for trespassing, though it’s not as if he didn’t pay for the experience.”
        Johan freezes, and Robin looks interested. “He’s dead now,” he manages, because this explains practically everything. And is almost certainly vital information to relay to the others—if they’re not careful, they now have an idea of what could happen to them.
        “I hoped he would learn from his mistakes, but it’s hard for some to change in time to save themselves.” She’s curious, but seems to understand that Severin wasn’t exactly a friend, even when they cared about his fate.
        “That bothered us too,” he agrees.
        “And you expect your other acquaintance might be likely to make the same mistakes?” she prods, more than a little alarmed, and, well…
        Rush would be entirely likely to do absolutely anything to achieve his goals. The sanctity of this little town would be of little consequence, to his mind. “Hopefully we can stop him.”
        “I’ll inform the others,” she promises. “Point him out if he’s a guest.”
        Xander considers that unlikely. Rush seems like he’d prefer camping in order to be able to act undetected, or relatively so. But he agrees to it anyway, because it doesn’t hurt to have the locals on their side.