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madimpossibledreamerMain Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: Josephine gets an important phone call.
Word Count: 1278
Rating: Teen (Buffy|Jojo's level violence)
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS.
She’d been telling herself she’d be the cool mom, she wasn’t going to hover or assume Johan was incapable of taking care of himself. He’s an adult now; he can take care of herself. It all sounded noble enough, in her head. Problem was, it was excuses. Just excuses.
No, it hadn’t been her fault. She hadn’t been there for him, growing up. She couldn’t have been. But she’d been so overwhelmed by the fact that she suddenly had a kid that she’d tried to convince herself he hadn’t needed her before, so she didn’t need to radically change her life to accommodate him. Which was all an awful lie.
He was, maybe too much, her son. Had inherited too much of her personality. Other people had called her reckless, but it was one thing to be told that and an entirely different thing to be seeing something like this from the outside. Just whining from those who couldn’t keep up, she’d thought, but maybe, just maybe, they might have had a point.
The difference, she feared, was the motivation, because she works best when she’s improvising a fight on the fly, and while that might be part of it, here, from hearing his friends talk about him he apparently feels he’s expendable. And if anyone’s supposed to disabuse him of that notion, it’s his mum. He needs her there, he needs her support. The situation will never be normal, or not uncomfortable, or any of those things, but she can’t let that stop her. She has a bad feeling about this, just like she’d had about mum, before the worst day of her life. She doesn’t need that day again.
And she’s forgetting her own advice, because it’s a situation she can’t immediately go fix, and she needs to do that. She can’t get off her arse and stop angsting, because she needs a good talk with her son to actually do something about this, and he’s almost impossible to get ahold of, right now.
“Please tell me he’s all right,” Josephine says the second she answers her mobile.
The mere moment of hesitation would be unnoticeable in anyone else. It’s rare to take a man like Giorno by surprise, but then, she’s behaving extremely uncharacteristically herself. “As per our agreement, I am keeping Signorina Summers apprised of new developments in our joint efforts against Wolfram & Hart, but given your son’s involvement, I thought to inform you first. One of Cugino Johan’s allies was able to find the time and location for Signor Wyndam-Pryce’s attempted Ascension ritual.” The title is sarcastic, only obviously so by the slight emphasis, but then, he’s probably dealt with a lot of jerks like Wesley, in his profession.
“Oddly enough, we also received an anonymous phone call informing us that most of the Wolfram & Hart escort could be delayed, but not all. We were unable to trace the call, but have already confirmed reports of casualties among the division headed by the man, so it’s likely a legitimate source of information. I wished to regroup our forces, but your son couldn’t wait given the time frame involved; he’s already gone ahead.” Josephine’s worries are not helped by the fact that Giorno doesn’t seem entirely comfortable with the situation.
“Do you think it’s a trap?” She knows he’s raising one perfectly maintained eyebrow at her without even having to see him. It’s an unusual question for her to be asking, she knows. But today, it matters, because she’s already lost her best friend and her mom and that’s far too many people.
Still, he answers, as gracious and calm as ever. “I am almost sure it is, but I’m not entirely sure of the intended target. The infighting happens to be worse than Passione politics, and I suspect our anonymous caller to be one of the Signor’s colleagues.” He hesitates, then adds, “I detained a few of his subordinates, but it seems few were in on the plan, and the man’s list of enemies is not conveniently short.” In her head, she easily translates that to ‘they’d been given to Passione’s best torturers’, of which she’s fairly certain uncle-cousin Giorno’s right-hand man and bodyguard might be one. Honestly, Giorno might have taken a hand in things too, given the abilities of Gold Experience, with or without Requiem. She tries not to think about that kind of thing as a courtesy, given her dad’s a cop and all.
“Both Wesley and us, probably, then. If we took each other out, that’d clear out a rival and earn our schemer some brownie points, too,” Josie suggests, and the noncommittal hum suggests the Don’s already thought about the possibility and probably even considers it likely.
“What are you taking? I can swing by and pick you up, maybe.” It’ll exhaust her more, but a full party’s usually a better option, and she knows better than to think he’s going to stay out of this. Sure, Wolfram & Hart may have made themselves his business, what with muscling in on his operations and stealing Arrows right from under his operative’s nose and other things a mostly law-abiding citizen like her shouldn’t actually know about, but going after his family, the family that hadn’t abandoned him, had taught him to play videogames and crack open watermelons during the summer? They’d happily signed their own death warrant. Don Giorno Giovanna would efficiently, ruthlessly wipe them off the face of the Earth for such an insult. He wouldn’t just stand back and let his minions deal with the situation, either. Personal satisfaction, and a blatant message to any who would dare make things personal for the leader of Passione.
“A dragon. He insisted he’d be faster than any jet.” The blond allows himself to sound smug for a second, a young man who’d just won his first round of Mario Kart against two aged veterans rather than the prestigious job title he’d held so young. (It had been an interesting summer, the first time they’d met.)
And with good reason, too. Because she’d definitely be smug if she had a dragon on speed dial. That is, hands down, awesome, and she’s actually kind of insulted. Not that uncle-cousin Giorno talks a lot, but still, that’s something kinda big. “Wait, you’ve known a dragon all this time and didn’t tell me?”
“He’s a recent acquaintance.” It’s a fact and an apology rolled into one. Let no one say the Don’s not an expert on efficiency. “You’ll still probably arrive before me.”
“A race, then,” she exclaims brightly, and before she signs off, a thought occurs to her. She’s on a roll today. “So, uh, should I pass all of this on to Buffy, then?”
That puts him right back into Don Mode. “In the interests of time, please, and pass on my apologies. I would do it in person, given my respect for her, but I think she should understand the urgency.”
“Sounds good. First on there owes a Margherita pizza.” She hangs up then, but not before she hears the slight chuckle on the other end of the line.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: Josephine gets an important phone call.
Word Count: 1278
Rating: Teen (Buffy|Jojo's level violence)
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS.
Josephine pretty much sprints for her mobile the second the disco music starts playing. Best case scenario, it’s her son, but she has a feeling it’s not. She knows her…cousin, whatever, the family tree is a convoluted headache under the best of circumstances, of which this isn’t anywhere near, had been keeping tabs on Johan. And if she wants to be honest with herself, which she damn well doesn’t but also knows she can’t keep on keeping on, not as she is. It’s not a workable situation, not really.
She’d been telling herself she’d be the cool mom, she wasn’t going to hover or assume Johan was incapable of taking care of himself. He’s an adult now; he can take care of herself. It all sounded noble enough, in her head. Problem was, it was excuses. Just excuses.
No, it hadn’t been her fault. She hadn’t been there for him, growing up. She couldn’t have been. But she’d been so overwhelmed by the fact that she suddenly had a kid that she’d tried to convince herself he hadn’t needed her before, so she didn’t need to radically change her life to accommodate him. Which was all an awful lie.
He was, maybe too much, her son. Had inherited too much of her personality. Other people had called her reckless, but it was one thing to be told that and an entirely different thing to be seeing something like this from the outside. Just whining from those who couldn’t keep up, she’d thought, but maybe, just maybe, they might have had a point.
The difference, she feared, was the motivation, because she works best when she’s improvising a fight on the fly, and while that might be part of it, here, from hearing his friends talk about him he apparently feels he’s expendable. And if anyone’s supposed to disabuse him of that notion, it’s his mum. He needs her there, he needs her support. The situation will never be normal, or not uncomfortable, or any of those things, but she can’t let that stop her. She has a bad feeling about this, just like she’d had about mum, before the worst day of her life. She doesn’t need that day again.
And she’s forgetting her own advice, because it’s a situation she can’t immediately go fix, and she needs to do that. She can’t get off her arse and stop angsting, because she needs a good talk with her son to actually do something about this, and he’s almost impossible to get ahold of, right now.
“Please tell me he’s all right,” Josephine says the second she answers her mobile.
The mere moment of hesitation would be unnoticeable in anyone else. It’s rare to take a man like Giorno by surprise, but then, she’s behaving extremely uncharacteristically herself. “As per our agreement, I am keeping Signorina Summers apprised of new developments in our joint efforts against Wolfram & Hart, but given your son’s involvement, I thought to inform you first. One of Cugino Johan’s allies was able to find the time and location for Signor Wyndam-Pryce’s attempted Ascension ritual.” The title is sarcastic, only obviously so by the slight emphasis, but then, he’s probably dealt with a lot of jerks like Wesley, in his profession.
“Oddly enough, we also received an anonymous phone call informing us that most of the Wolfram & Hart escort could be delayed, but not all. We were unable to trace the call, but have already confirmed reports of casualties among the division headed by the man, so it’s likely a legitimate source of information. I wished to regroup our forces, but your son couldn’t wait given the time frame involved; he’s already gone ahead.” Josephine’s worries are not helped by the fact that Giorno doesn’t seem entirely comfortable with the situation.
“Do you think it’s a trap?” She knows he’s raising one perfectly maintained eyebrow at her without even having to see him. It’s an unusual question for her to be asking, she knows. But today, it matters, because she’s already lost her best friend and her mom and that’s far too many people.
Still, he answers, as gracious and calm as ever. “I am almost sure it is, but I’m not entirely sure of the intended target. The infighting happens to be worse than Passione politics, and I suspect our anonymous caller to be one of the Signor’s colleagues.” He hesitates, then adds, “I detained a few of his subordinates, but it seems few were in on the plan, and the man’s list of enemies is not conveniently short.” In her head, she easily translates that to ‘they’d been given to Passione’s best torturers’, of which she’s fairly certain uncle-cousin Giorno’s right-hand man and bodyguard might be one. Honestly, Giorno might have taken a hand in things too, given the abilities of Gold Experience, with or without Requiem. She tries not to think about that kind of thing as a courtesy, given her dad’s a cop and all.
“Both Wesley and us, probably, then. If we took each other out, that’d clear out a rival and earn our schemer some brownie points, too,” Josie suggests, and the noncommittal hum suggests the Don’s already thought about the possibility and probably even considers it likely.
“What are you taking? I can swing by and pick you up, maybe.” It’ll exhaust her more, but a full party’s usually a better option, and she knows better than to think he’s going to stay out of this. Sure, Wolfram & Hart may have made themselves his business, what with muscling in on his operations and stealing Arrows right from under his operative’s nose and other things a mostly law-abiding citizen like her shouldn’t actually know about, but going after his family, the family that hadn’t abandoned him, had taught him to play videogames and crack open watermelons during the summer? They’d happily signed their own death warrant. Don Giorno Giovanna would efficiently, ruthlessly wipe them off the face of the Earth for such an insult. He wouldn’t just stand back and let his minions deal with the situation, either. Personal satisfaction, and a blatant message to any who would dare make things personal for the leader of Passione.
“A dragon. He insisted he’d be faster than any jet.” The blond allows himself to sound smug for a second, a young man who’d just won his first round of Mario Kart against two aged veterans rather than the prestigious job title he’d held so young. (It had been an interesting summer, the first time they’d met.)
And with good reason, too. Because she’d definitely be smug if she had a dragon on speed dial. That is, hands down, awesome, and she’s actually kind of insulted. Not that uncle-cousin Giorno talks a lot, but still, that’s something kinda big. “Wait, you’ve known a dragon all this time and didn’t tell me?”
“He’s a recent acquaintance.” It’s a fact and an apology rolled into one. Let no one say the Don’s not an expert on efficiency. “You’ll still probably arrive before me.”
“A race, then,” she exclaims brightly, and before she signs off, a thought occurs to her. She’s on a roll today. “So, uh, should I pass all of this on to Buffy, then?”
That puts him right back into Don Mode. “In the interests of time, please, and pass on my apologies. I would do it in person, given my respect for her, but I think she should understand the urgency.”
“Sounds good. First on there owes a Margherita pizza.” She hangs up then, but not before she hears the slight chuckle on the other end of the line.
