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madimpossibledreamerin other news buffy is so much easier to write thinking about natsukawa and this is a surreal thing I don't know what to do with.
Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: Severin and Buffy try to figure out their next move.
Word Count: 1389
Rating: Teen (Buffy|Jojo's level violence)
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS
Unfortunately, the most they can do is hit a few more Wolfram & Hart sponsored locations, to no success. It appears that they’ve been abandoning a lot of their Italy locations, though at this point Buffy’s fairly certain Giorno has declared war. She’s sure that he’d been hiding his strength, partly because they were undercover and partly because he didn’t seem the type to give away everything even to allies. It’d been a conscious effort just to be as transparent as he’d been, which, to be fair, she had appreciated. Also to be fair, maybe it wouldn’t have been as easy to spot for most people, but she’s had years of people lying to her. For the most part, it was to protect her, but it’s still obvious by this point. He’d only held back because he wasn’t sure he had backup and didn’t want to risk his people, and yeah, he’d cared. Didn’t let it hold him back, but he cared. He also had high standards, so she’s fairly certain fighting any of the others wouldn’t be easy, either. Perhaps it was also the scale, the fact that Wolfram & Hart was international, but now that he’d had assurances from the Speedwagon Foundation and the New Slayers’ and Watchers’ Council, he’d no doubt move quickly. The Don wasn’t much of one to hesitate.
They do encounter some resistance here and there, but it’s not very difficult. Only one of the year’s hottest new vampires, or whatever undead abomination they are, this one like a twisted bear. For the first time Buffy admits that okay, yeah, she gets the appeal of wrestling now; it’s a great stress relief. The rest are humans that flee at great speed, and Severin just glances in her direction and growls and lets them go, or lowly, freshly sired vamps that barely slow down their stride. They aren’t lucky enough like whatever Speedwagon Foundation Stand Users to find incriminating documents or anything like that, though there is a single communication possibly indicating unrest within the ranks (which, duh, they’d known there was a possible civil war or something going on already). She does note that a few boxes of financial records remain, which Giorno will find of interest. He texts back his thanks in polite perfectly written and punctuated English. She tells him he forgot a grinning cat emoji, because he totally seems the type (he is extremely fascinated by animals), and gets another carefully written text thanking her for pointing out the omission, complete with a lizard emoji.
The problem is that while she’s getting stress relief, Severin gets more and more restless, like a caged tiger. He gets more quiet and more broody with every failed branch visit. He’s nearly silent when they finally eat, calling it a day, though he does actually meet her attempts at conversation with half-hearted responses. During the fights, he’d seemed frustrated, angry, and she’s sure if she hadn’t been there, he would have killed. Just like Faith. And just like Faith, he seems lost, desperate for some kind of control now.
At first, she tries a couple softballs (which, why are they called that anyway? softballs hurt), about Italy and the food and the like, and he’s short in his responses, but that burning fury is gone. The only thing left in its wake is what seems like a bone-deep exhaustion.
Eventually, she moves on to their plans for the future. “Well, if all else fails, we could maybe go for their leadership. I’m not sure how good the information is, given the source…” She watches carefully, and the slight glee at her insult to the NSWC, at her continued affirmation at her supposed solo act, is muffled, just like everything else.
She’d thought he’d been the one casting the Spell of Distrust, to be honest. When she hadn’t been around him for a little, texting others behind her back, she’d felt the paranoia lift, just a little, and Slayer senses said he was human, sure, but there was something familiar about his magic, and maybe, just maybe…but if that’s the case, what’s even happening here? He should be going on with that arrogant rage, but no. Never mind the fact that suspicion and doubt is the whole point of the spell, and so maybe he’s just messing with her again. “….the one who’s probably heading this whole project is a former Watcher-turned-W&H-Employee, Wesley Wyndam-Price. He’s apparently been put in charge of Special Projects, who are the same people who wanted the Mask and the Arrow and that book on Ascension.” Viewed purely objectively, his actions don’t make sense. Maybe he couldn’t control who was affected, or how their suspicions were directed, but if that’s the case, he’d be acting extra hard to act as a trustworthy ally, not an inconsistent mess, right?
He stops slumping, leaning forward just a little. He still looks exhausted, but there’s something that looks like hope in his eyes, and it’s…pure, for lack of a better word. That darkness that had started creeping in when they—
Hang on. When they’d met Fugo.
Now, it’s not that Fugo’s Stand does that. Probably. Giorno would have to have been lying, and Fugo, and that’d mean she really couldn’t have trusted them. Not entirely impossible, given that he was boy band mafia. Both of them were.
But if Severin was a victim, instead. If he’d been affected by the spell, and it’d been feeding his darkest instincts…
“The problem is that he carefully guards the secret of his location, isn’t it?” He sighs, mindlessly swirling his fork in his pasta, leaning his head into his hand and looking every single day younger than she is. “And I suppose most of the Wolfram & Hart employees are trained to resist torture—not,” he adds, with a small, shy smile, “…that we’d have to go for the humans, not in an organization staffed by so many wimpy vampires.”
“No wonder supervillains keep complaining they can’t get any good help these days,” she jokes, and he actually chuckles, still obviously about to fall asleep in his pasta.
“Well, we could try asking around tomorrow,” she suggests, watching his reaction.
“I can still—” he starts to protest, and yawns midway through his sentence, flushing heavily.
“We sleep first. Your girlfriend would probably become a ghost just to haunt me if I let you die from pushing yourself too hard.” She can keep an eye on him. It’d be nice to be able to save him, but between the dreams and the way this feels so utterly inevitable, that might just be a w.i.s.h., not about to be granted by any demons around (not that it’s vengeance, really, so D’Hoffryn might sit this one out anyway).
If she’d mentioned something like that earlier, he would’ve torn her head off (verbally, or tried to physically; she’d stop him ‘cause she’s not big on the head-tearing thing). Now he just sounds a little sad, wistful maybe. “You think there’s an afterlife?”
Heavy, maybe, but it goes with the territory. “Well, I’ve met a couple ghosts, so that’s totally a thing.” And, well, it’s personal, but—“…and I was in Heaven, or a heaven, or something, for a bit after I died. I don’t really remember much, just…feelings, not details.”
He hums, giving up on his food and just downing his water in a few desperate gulps. “I envy you that. It’s nice to feel certain.” And she understands exactly how he can say that, given that he seems lost unless he’s pursuing his vengeance. Unless he’s not second-guessing himself because he’s caught up in the effects of what could maybe, just maybe, be a spell. She gets that, but at the same time, the occasional self-interrogation is good for the soul, because there’s nothing like a self-righteous person with power. She’s been there, she’s seen that, she’s even done that on occasion, and it never leads to places that are of the good.
Either way, it’ll come to a head tonight, assuming she’s getting any better at this dream-interpretation thing. She wishes him good night and pretends to fall asleep, just like she’s done in the past when she was trying to get a few texts out without him noticing, only this time it’s surveillance, not communication, she’s after.
