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madimpossibledreamerfriendly reminder that captain beefheart says no to hydra cap
Robin would make the obvious Pensieve joke. (He's really conflicted about Rowling, but still loves the world.)
early post! beta'd! and I think the week's delay resulted in a better chapter, so these are all good things!
Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: The fight begins in earnest.
Word Count: 1229
Rating: Teen (Buffy's|Jojo gore)
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS
Some of them seem familiar in a way that suggests they’re being taken from their minds, which has the very real possibility of going even worse than if they simply had a fixed shape, since she’s got quite the collection for it to choose from. At least it doesn’t look like it’s taking the canonical abilities of the various monsters. She’d know how to fight them, generally, but at the same time, it would be more difficult. It’s an open question whether her knowledge of fictional monster or Jojo’s knowledge of real ones would be more of a problem.
At one point, it feels like the blood itself starts crawling up her leg, only to not even exist when she tries to swat it away. At least it seems likely that the blood and very possibly the corpses and carcasses littering the streets are probably just a hallucination. It makes them easier to ignore in favor of the skeleton-monsters attacking.
This time, she doesn’t bother trying to use Panzermensch to change anything. They might, possibly, be safer in a tank, but it would also be very easy for it to just turn into a metal coffin. Robin probably has a little to contribute from science fiction and fantasy, Fitz is wide-read, and Darling has human monsters she could contribute, but the more she sees of Jojo’s psyche, the more she realizes it’s not exactly normal.
It’s better to have another fighter, and while Panzermensch’s cyborg guns aren’t as good as her own or a tank, they’re enough to distract if not kill or destroy the smaller ones.
She glances over to Robin to see how he’s doing, only to watch the flesh melt off his face as his face twists in agony, and it must have distracted her just enough that she misses her next shot. The vulture scrapes a bit of the actual flesh off her arm with its claws, though it’s the work of a moment to stab it with a combat knife she has on her. She nearly stabs Jojo, who appears from nowhere beside her.
“Startling me now is a perfect way to get wounded,” she tells him, privately wondering how he got…
“Over here?” Jojo finishes her unspoken sentence, smiling wryly when she just gives him an unimpressed look. “You don’t speak in dreams, you think, and we’re in some sort of psychic-dream-physical realm. I was over there, but now I’m over here.” He shrugs nonchalantly, smile still on his face, but now that she’s looking closer she can see the traces of strain in his eyes. He’s trying to keep a brave face to keep them from panicking, particularly under the circumstances, but keeping them all in some semblance of sane minds is wearing on him.
“Could you fight it yourself?” she asks, and it’s clear from the look on his face that he understands exactly what she’s asking and is not happy about it.
“It’d be harder than this, yeah. Don’t worry about me. Fitz is taking care of it.” His voice has taken on a slight English accent, though he doesn’t seem to have noticed.
She blinks. “He’s healing you?”
“He’s like my battery.” He grins, irrepressible, and the Captain shakes her head, taking aim and firing at bone-wolf leaping at them. It falls, twitching.
Maybe this is why Jojo is perfectly fine dealing with the blond’s complaining about him. It seems like he’s inviting that response on purpose. “You’re terrible.”
“He doesn’t mind.” Then again, with an analysis of their reactions, Jojo is perfectly correct about that. Even if Fitz did grumble, it seems, after getting to know them both better, to be largely for show. “At least you’ve got great reflexes and you’re not playing with tank controls.”
It nearly makes her laugh, which would jostle another shot. Fortunately, muscle memory takes over and prevents her from doing so. That doesn’t mean she can’t respond appropriately. “Don’t give it ideas.” It’s mostly joking, since that would require more mental rewriting than simply messing with her memories, but still, that would be awful. She finds it adds to the horror, so enjoys that kind of artificial difficulty in games as long as it feels fair, but in real life she doesn’t even have saves, let alone save states.
Does she?
Jojo looks thoughtful, so apparently he’s reading her mind or whatever again. “Maybe?” he hedges. To be fair, if it’s something the man could even do, it’s possible he doesn’t particularly want to spend the energy on that.
Mostly, though, he’s staring at Panzermensch, a light of realization in his eyes.
“What?” she snaps. Yes, she gets defensive about her Stand, but it’s not the first time someone’s made a comment about it before or her heritage, and what should really matter is how they get used, not the fact that they exist. She’s doing her best to keep democracies from feeling the chill of a fascist regime, whether the threat come from Stand Users or supernatural quarters, and that’s what should be counted as important.
“Your Panzermensch is semi-automatic, isn’t it? You can give him simple orders, like ‘turn paper airplane into hang glider’, but otherwise he acts on his own and doesn’t seem like he has too much of a personality of his own?” The voice becomes more strained, like Pretender is doing something complicated again, but she almost doesn’t notice in place of the rising fury in her mind.
“What the hell are you saying, Jojo?” she asks, voice dangerous, and he puts his hands up in surrender.
“Honestly? That it’s a good thing.” His arm extends, crackling the golden lightning of Hamon, practically disintegrating a vulture skeleton behind her; she returns the favor with a few well-placed shots behind him. He nods nonchalantly at her Stand. “He’s completely unaffected.”
Her mind races—that implies that the other Stands are affected separately from their users, which in turn implies interesting things about memory and cognition…
“I’m glad you remember,” he continues. “But maybe stick closer to your Stand for now. It could help. Definitely keep him out.”
And then he’s gone again, and she frowns—it’s almost instantaneously taking on an unreal quality, like it hadn’t happened at all, but…
She concentrates thoughtfully on the feeling of her Stand in her mind, and the memory regains some solidity. Panzermench’s mechanical eye only sees what’s right in front of him, it seems. It could be dangerous, if wielded incorrectly, or if she took that aloof observation as objective truth, but with her to guide him…it seems that’s an advantage for now.
Robin would make the obvious Pensieve joke. (He's really conflicted about Rowling, but still loves the world.)
early post! beta'd! and I think the week's delay resulted in a better chapter, so these are all good things!
Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: The fight begins in earnest.
Word Count: 1229
Rating: Teen (Buffy's|Jojo gore)
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS
It might be a slight cop-out to describe the combat as nightmarish if not for the fact that nothing else quite captures the feeling, the Captain reflects. It doesn’t help that it’s only half-remembered after the fact, like waking up from a nightmare. The necrophagous demon has started using its mind-altering powers in earnest, so nightmarish things flicker in and out of the inadequate light of the street-lamp and the red shadows in the blood-mist. And Jojo wasn’t wrong, either—even with Pretender’s help, she doesn’t remember all of it, only bits and pieces. Her memories flicker in and out, just like the blood squishing beneath her boots, skeletons of animals and strange, fleshy creatures without skin or fur and other things she can’t quite make out.
Some of them seem familiar in a way that suggests they’re being taken from their minds, which has the very real possibility of going even worse than if they simply had a fixed shape, since she’s got quite the collection for it to choose from. At least it doesn’t look like it’s taking the canonical abilities of the various monsters. She’d know how to fight them, generally, but at the same time, it would be more difficult. It’s an open question whether her knowledge of fictional monster or Jojo’s knowledge of real ones would be more of a problem.
At one point, it feels like the blood itself starts crawling up her leg, only to not even exist when she tries to swat it away. At least it seems likely that the blood and very possibly the corpses and carcasses littering the streets are probably just a hallucination. It makes them easier to ignore in favor of the skeleton-monsters attacking.
This time, she doesn’t bother trying to use Panzermensch to change anything. They might, possibly, be safer in a tank, but it would also be very easy for it to just turn into a metal coffin. Robin probably has a little to contribute from science fiction and fantasy, Fitz is wide-read, and Darling has human monsters she could contribute, but the more she sees of Jojo’s psyche, the more she realizes it’s not exactly normal.
It’s better to have another fighter, and while Panzermensch’s cyborg guns aren’t as good as her own or a tank, they’re enough to distract if not kill or destroy the smaller ones.
She glances over to Robin to see how he’s doing, only to watch the flesh melt off his face as his face twists in agony, and it must have distracted her just enough that she misses her next shot. The vulture scrapes a bit of the actual flesh off her arm with its claws, though it’s the work of a moment to stab it with a combat knife she has on her. She nearly stabs Jojo, who appears from nowhere beside her.
“Startling me now is a perfect way to get wounded,” she tells him, privately wondering how he got…
“Over here?” Jojo finishes her unspoken sentence, smiling wryly when she just gives him an unimpressed look. “You don’t speak in dreams, you think, and we’re in some sort of psychic-dream-physical realm. I was over there, but now I’m over here.” He shrugs nonchalantly, smile still on his face, but now that she’s looking closer she can see the traces of strain in his eyes. He’s trying to keep a brave face to keep them from panicking, particularly under the circumstances, but keeping them all in some semblance of sane minds is wearing on him.
“Could you fight it yourself?” she asks, and it’s clear from the look on his face that he understands exactly what she’s asking and is not happy about it.
“It’d be harder than this, yeah. Don’t worry about me. Fitz is taking care of it.” His voice has taken on a slight English accent, though he doesn’t seem to have noticed.
She blinks. “He’s healing you?”
“He’s like my battery.” He grins, irrepressible, and the Captain shakes her head, taking aim and firing at bone-wolf leaping at them. It falls, twitching.
Maybe this is why Jojo is perfectly fine dealing with the blond’s complaining about him. It seems like he’s inviting that response on purpose. “You’re terrible.”
“He doesn’t mind.” Then again, with an analysis of their reactions, Jojo is perfectly correct about that. Even if Fitz did grumble, it seems, after getting to know them both better, to be largely for show. “At least you’ve got great reflexes and you’re not playing with tank controls.”
It nearly makes her laugh, which would jostle another shot. Fortunately, muscle memory takes over and prevents her from doing so. That doesn’t mean she can’t respond appropriately. “Don’t give it ideas.” It’s mostly joking, since that would require more mental rewriting than simply messing with her memories, but still, that would be awful. She finds it adds to the horror, so enjoys that kind of artificial difficulty in games as long as it feels fair, but in real life she doesn’t even have saves, let alone save states.
Does she?
Jojo looks thoughtful, so apparently he’s reading her mind or whatever again. “Maybe?” he hedges. To be fair, if it’s something the man could even do, it’s possible he doesn’t particularly want to spend the energy on that.
Mostly, though, he’s staring at Panzermensch, a light of realization in his eyes.
“What?” she snaps. Yes, she gets defensive about her Stand, but it’s not the first time someone’s made a comment about it before or her heritage, and what should really matter is how they get used, not the fact that they exist. She’s doing her best to keep democracies from feeling the chill of a fascist regime, whether the threat come from Stand Users or supernatural quarters, and that’s what should be counted as important.
“Your Panzermensch is semi-automatic, isn’t it? You can give him simple orders, like ‘turn paper airplane into hang glider’, but otherwise he acts on his own and doesn’t seem like he has too much of a personality of his own?” The voice becomes more strained, like Pretender is doing something complicated again, but she almost doesn’t notice in place of the rising fury in her mind.
“What the hell are you saying, Jojo?” she asks, voice dangerous, and he puts his hands up in surrender.
“Honestly? That it’s a good thing.” His arm extends, crackling the golden lightning of Hamon, practically disintegrating a vulture skeleton behind her; she returns the favor with a few well-placed shots behind him. He nods nonchalantly at her Stand. “He’s completely unaffected.”
Her mind races—that implies that the other Stands are affected separately from their users, which in turn implies interesting things about memory and cognition…
“I’m glad you remember,” he continues. “But maybe stick closer to your Stand for now. It could help. Definitely keep him out.”
And then he’s gone again, and she frowns—it’s almost instantaneously taking on an unreal quality, like it hadn’t happened at all, but…
She concentrates thoughtfully on the feeling of her Stand in her mind, and the memory regains some solidity. Panzermench’s mechanical eye only sees what’s right in front of him, it seems. It could be dangerous, if wielded incorrectly, or if she took that aloof observation as objective truth, but with her to guide him…it seems that’s an advantage for now.
