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madimpossibledreamerI NEED TO REMEMBER THIS IS SET IN 2004 OR 2005 (and will figure out actual numbers at some point; I think I threw out two contradictory statements and have to set those straight)
Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: The team encounters another complication.
Word Count: 1369
Rating: Teen
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS
When Johan wakes him, he looks worried. It’s too early for worries, too early for anything. Fitz wants nothing more than to bury back into the warmth, soak it up like a purring cat, but Jojo’s his friend. His responsibility since he made the utterly reckless decision to try to ‘rescue’ the man.
He’d been falling back into bad habits. It’s no wonder Xander had reacted so strongly.
“What’s wrong?” he whispers, seeing Darling still asleep up on a different cot, curled up in a foetal position with Whisper seeking her warmth like a normal snake.
“Police,” Johan whispers back, tense, and that wakes Fitz up, memories of days when that was the worst word in the world chasing each other around his brain. He quickly pushes off the covers and follows Jojo to a table where an actual English breakfast is waiting, steaming even.
“Luckily you’re not the only one with supply connections,” Jojo teases, quickly chewing the bacon he pops in his mouth. He’s still being quiet—a change, and almost a welcome one, if not for the tense way he’s holding himself.
“You’re not looking to replace me, are you?” It’s meant to be a joke, but it doesn’t quite come out that way (everyone else does, why not you).
Johan glances over with eyes that are too understanding and shakes his head. “Never.” He sighs, and Fitz is reminded of his growing certainty that misdirection and deflection is Xander’s stock in trade. He’d been psyching himself up for this conversation by goofing off, and Fitz didn’t play along. He feels a pang of guilt, but pushes that aside.
He might as well continue down that path even as Jojo swallows a mouthful of toast. No matter how nervous it makes him, revealing his past. “Well, I essentially signed up for this, even if I didn’t understand where it would lead. Despite my own record.”
Johan coughs a little but recovers quickly, raising an eyebrow. “That, uh. That isn’t what I was expecting at all.” To his credit, he doesn’t try to belittle the trust or make a joke about it, no matter how awkward he looks. “Well, I guess, it’s not like I’m not right there alongside you. Although for all I know, nobody knows.”
It’s Fitz’s turn to look shocked, and Jojo grins, more serious than amused. “The cops, uh, weren’t exactly that helpful in Sunnydale. It’s an open question whether they were bribed and/or working for the demon Mayor and/or just as affected by Sunnydale Nothing to See Here, Move Along syndrome as everyone else. My money’s on all three. They were definitely happy enough to go after Buffy with little-to-zero evidence. If I don’t have anything anymore, it’s more likely because all the records went down with the township, though I guess Giles might’ve done something and not told me about it. It’s not like it’s the first time he’s done that lately.” None of it sounds real, but if it was…
It probably is. When things are serious, Johan turns to humor. And, really, Fitz has already questioned things far more than is warranted. He’s heard far more bizarre things from his mother’s tales. It’s only the fact that he grew up with them as mere stories that leads him to treat the situation as recklessly as he has been. This is real, not a fantasy. He’s not the only one with knowledge here; Jojo’s power leads him to catch up quickly. He needs to start taking this all seriously.
Speaking of the tendency for humor, Johan plops a hat down on Fitz’s head, and he tries not to fidget as he realizes it’s actually one of his own. From the bookstore, even.
“Courtesy of Robin. You just missed them. I think I hit it on the nose with the whole Robin Hood thing. Guy’s pretty resourceful. The cops only kind of tried to go after me, and this is me, I’ve perfected the art of the escape, alongside running and being thrown into things. Like learning judo, actually. The Captain and her Supply Sergeant are out doing scouting, trying to figure out why they’d be after me. The good thing is, they didn’t seem trigger-happy, just like they really, really wanted to talk to me, which usually leads to attempted wrongful arrest in Sunnydale and might not here. Then again, British coppers don’t carry guns, do they?” Jojo accidentally taking on the ghost of an English accent makes sense, now that he thinks about it. It’s probably another carryover from using Pretender to look at the memories of his ancestors—and he was supposed to look at his mother’s memories, wasn’t he? His mother, who’s nearly half Japanese, half Scottish, and a little English had attended school in England, so it would make sense if she, too, had an English accent. Fitz hadn’t considered that, but then, a lot of the realities of his mother’s stories escaped him then. He’ll do better.
“Most of them, no. I don’t suppose you got anything useful from your, er, Colour and the Shape?” Apparently, at the smile, he’d gotten something wrong, but at least he was trying to listen.
“Her memories of being Jessica are really vague, and I can’t even tell if it’s due to the Stamp thing or just the fact she was drunk out of her mind most of the time.” Johan pauses, the cheer dropping away. “That, and it’s really weird to see someone else’s perspective on yourself. Really weird.”
Fitz isn’t much of one for touch, but Xander is, so he reaches out to squeeze his friend’s shoulder. Jojo smiles gratefully. “Being the rest of them is weird, but not that weird, because they haven’t met me yet, so I can kinda distance myself from it, if that makes sense. It’s like a holodeck documentary or something.” He stretches out, still looking unfortunately tense. “Apparently Robin was also a theatre kid. Something something stage crew. I would’ve paid more attention but I was pre-caffeine fix. Most I got was it played right into the lifelong supply sergeant thing. He said that unless your dad was going under a false name he definitely wasn’t one of the performers on stage, which is kind of an if, because if I were your dad, I’d have been going under a false name for a long, long time now. He sent pictures to my email to see if you can spot Kodos, though we might need to watch a performance for a bit for sure.”
He pulls out what looks like a new laptop and signs in, passing it over easily. It’s a little odd to see a picture of the people the blond had last seen putting his friend on some sort of twisted trial as the desktop wallpaper, but he tries not to show any hesitation whatsoever, moving on to the pictures sent. He doesn’t recognize any of the performers, but then, he might not. Aunt only had a few pictures, probably with the same ‘identify the bastard’ intentions he’s using right now, and certainly didn’t take them out for him to look at. He only found them by accident once, and, well. She was hardly the guardian figure of the year, but she did care. “I only vaguely recall what he looks like, unfortunately.”
Johan sighs. “Okay, I get it. Sometimes you gotta bait ‘em out. It’s just kind of weird and ironic this keeps happening to me after the power thing.” He waves it off when Fitz opens his mouth to apologize. “Not your fault. Any of it, in case you didn’t catch that. Robin Hood said something about it making the most sense if he’s supposedly a patron or a prop manager or something, but I guess we’ll figure that out. I guess we’re going to the theatre, with a plan to pull the fire alarm in case he plans to use the innocents as hostages and an ‘absolutely no we are not getting separated’ clause.”
“I think we can do a little better than that in terms of planning,” Fitz smirks, and that’s how Darling finds them when the smell of food breaks through her sleep.
Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: The team encounters another complication.
Word Count: 1369
Rating: Teen
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS
When Johan wakes him, he looks worried. It’s too early for worries, too early for anything. Fitz wants nothing more than to bury back into the warmth, soak it up like a purring cat, but Jojo’s his friend. His responsibility since he made the utterly reckless decision to try to ‘rescue’ the man.
He’d been falling back into bad habits. It’s no wonder Xander had reacted so strongly.
“What’s wrong?” he whispers, seeing Darling still asleep up on a different cot, curled up in a foetal position with Whisper seeking her warmth like a normal snake.
“Police,” Johan whispers back, tense, and that wakes Fitz up, memories of days when that was the worst word in the world chasing each other around his brain. He quickly pushes off the covers and follows Jojo to a table where an actual English breakfast is waiting, steaming even.
“Luckily you’re not the only one with supply connections,” Jojo teases, quickly chewing the bacon he pops in his mouth. He’s still being quiet—a change, and almost a welcome one, if not for the tense way he’s holding himself.
“You’re not looking to replace me, are you?” It’s meant to be a joke, but it doesn’t quite come out that way (everyone else does, why not you).
Johan glances over with eyes that are too understanding and shakes his head. “Never.” He sighs, and Fitz is reminded of his growing certainty that misdirection and deflection is Xander’s stock in trade. He’d been psyching himself up for this conversation by goofing off, and Fitz didn’t play along. He feels a pang of guilt, but pushes that aside.
He might as well continue down that path even as Jojo swallows a mouthful of toast. No matter how nervous it makes him, revealing his past. “Well, I essentially signed up for this, even if I didn’t understand where it would lead. Despite my own record.”
Johan coughs a little but recovers quickly, raising an eyebrow. “That, uh. That isn’t what I was expecting at all.” To his credit, he doesn’t try to belittle the trust or make a joke about it, no matter how awkward he looks. “Well, I guess, it’s not like I’m not right there alongside you. Although for all I know, nobody knows.”
It’s Fitz’s turn to look shocked, and Jojo grins, more serious than amused. “The cops, uh, weren’t exactly that helpful in Sunnydale. It’s an open question whether they were bribed and/or working for the demon Mayor and/or just as affected by Sunnydale Nothing to See Here, Move Along syndrome as everyone else. My money’s on all three. They were definitely happy enough to go after Buffy with little-to-zero evidence. If I don’t have anything anymore, it’s more likely because all the records went down with the township, though I guess Giles might’ve done something and not told me about it. It’s not like it’s the first time he’s done that lately.” None of it sounds real, but if it was…
It probably is. When things are serious, Johan turns to humor. And, really, Fitz has already questioned things far more than is warranted. He’s heard far more bizarre things from his mother’s tales. It’s only the fact that he grew up with them as mere stories that leads him to treat the situation as recklessly as he has been. This is real, not a fantasy. He’s not the only one with knowledge here; Jojo’s power leads him to catch up quickly. He needs to start taking this all seriously.
Speaking of the tendency for humor, Johan plops a hat down on Fitz’s head, and he tries not to fidget as he realizes it’s actually one of his own. From the bookstore, even.
“Courtesy of Robin. You just missed them. I think I hit it on the nose with the whole Robin Hood thing. Guy’s pretty resourceful. The cops only kind of tried to go after me, and this is me, I’ve perfected the art of the escape, alongside running and being thrown into things. Like learning judo, actually. The Captain and her Supply Sergeant are out doing scouting, trying to figure out why they’d be after me. The good thing is, they didn’t seem trigger-happy, just like they really, really wanted to talk to me, which usually leads to attempted wrongful arrest in Sunnydale and might not here. Then again, British coppers don’t carry guns, do they?” Jojo accidentally taking on the ghost of an English accent makes sense, now that he thinks about it. It’s probably another carryover from using Pretender to look at the memories of his ancestors—and he was supposed to look at his mother’s memories, wasn’t he? His mother, who’s nearly half Japanese, half Scottish, and a little English had attended school in England, so it would make sense if she, too, had an English accent. Fitz hadn’t considered that, but then, a lot of the realities of his mother’s stories escaped him then. He’ll do better.
“Most of them, no. I don’t suppose you got anything useful from your, er, Colour and the Shape?” Apparently, at the smile, he’d gotten something wrong, but at least he was trying to listen.
“Her memories of being Jessica are really vague, and I can’t even tell if it’s due to the Stamp thing or just the fact she was drunk out of her mind most of the time.” Johan pauses, the cheer dropping away. “That, and it’s really weird to see someone else’s perspective on yourself. Really weird.”
Fitz isn’t much of one for touch, but Xander is, so he reaches out to squeeze his friend’s shoulder. Jojo smiles gratefully. “Being the rest of them is weird, but not that weird, because they haven’t met me yet, so I can kinda distance myself from it, if that makes sense. It’s like a holodeck documentary or something.” He stretches out, still looking unfortunately tense. “Apparently Robin was also a theatre kid. Something something stage crew. I would’ve paid more attention but I was pre-caffeine fix. Most I got was it played right into the lifelong supply sergeant thing. He said that unless your dad was going under a false name he definitely wasn’t one of the performers on stage, which is kind of an if, because if I were your dad, I’d have been going under a false name for a long, long time now. He sent pictures to my email to see if you can spot Kodos, though we might need to watch a performance for a bit for sure.”
He pulls out what looks like a new laptop and signs in, passing it over easily. It’s a little odd to see a picture of the people the blond had last seen putting his friend on some sort of twisted trial as the desktop wallpaper, but he tries not to show any hesitation whatsoever, moving on to the pictures sent. He doesn’t recognize any of the performers, but then, he might not. Aunt only had a few pictures, probably with the same ‘identify the bastard’ intentions he’s using right now, and certainly didn’t take them out for him to look at. He only found them by accident once, and, well. She was hardly the guardian figure of the year, but she did care. “I only vaguely recall what he looks like, unfortunately.”
Johan sighs. “Okay, I get it. Sometimes you gotta bait ‘em out. It’s just kind of weird and ironic this keeps happening to me after the power thing.” He waves it off when Fitz opens his mouth to apologize. “Not your fault. Any of it, in case you didn’t catch that. Robin Hood said something about it making the most sense if he’s supposedly a patron or a prop manager or something, but I guess we’ll figure that out. I guess we’re going to the theatre, with a plan to pull the fire alarm in case he plans to use the innocents as hostages and an ‘absolutely no we are not getting separated’ clause.”
“I think we can do a little better than that in terms of planning,” Fitz smirks, and that’s how Darling finds them when the smell of food breaks through her sleep.
