Fact-Finding
Mar. 21st, 2022 11:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madimpossibledreamerJoyce packed away some of Buffy's stuff while drunk. She hasn't gone into Buffy's room since to realize that wasn't just a dream.
Jotaro's referring to the 'punching things together' thing Buffy said earlier.
Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Summary: Xander continues to make things awkward, and they find a clue.
Word Count: 1477
Rating: Teen
Warnings: stereotyping, referenced parental abuse (Joyce, a little, the Harrises)
That is, after all, her curse. Or superpower. She’s not sure which and doesn’t quite remember which Xander had said it was. Still, as Dr. Kujo excuses himself to make a phone call, she wants to know. How many Stand Users are there? How common are they? How does one fight one, you know, in the purely theoretical situation if they had to. What’s the Foundation he’s calling, that Buffy mentioned? How does it work? Are they likely to have any information about the supernatural, too? Why is he making the phone call elsewhere? Are there things he doesn’t want them to know? Well, not that that makes him bad, or anything—Giles is definitely keeping secrets, too, and he’s trustworthy.
She’s distracted when Xander puts his old battered phone on the table. He likes it when she pretends it’s a normal phone. Some people, like Cordelia and Buffy, don’t—Buffy because to her, having a new phone every year is normal until it isn’t and she doesn’t get what that means, Cordy because she knows exactly what it means. “Sorry that the screen’s busted, but I took a picture of the mask.”
“Ah, good thinking. That will come in use.” Of course, it’s not something Giles would think of.
Dr. Kujo returns, frowning. “They’re fairly sure it’s not a Stand User,” he announces, placing the promised frappuccino and coffees for Xander and Willow on the table. Willow blinks. There are times she forgets delivery is a thing. On paper, every restaurant (of which there are few) in Sunnydale delivers. In practice, it’s more like ‘hardly anyone does’ with a side of ‘if the delivery guy feels like it today’. She’d think an intimidating guy like Dr. Kujo would be even less likely to actually get delivery, even if that’s a little mean. Sometimes it saves your life, though. “It’s not a Stone Mask, either.”
“Well, no, it’s wood,” Xander replies with a ‘duh’ voice. He’s been in a bad mood, wanting to yell at Buffy, but—
Okay, it’s not like she’d say he was a bully. He’s not. She’d like to say it’s not in his nature, but it’s more like he has a finely tuned sense of the fights he can pick, and he does definitely have a mean streak. Maybe he’s just become cattier after dating Cordelia. If he picks a fight with Buffy, Dr. Kujo will step in, but if he snipes at her dad, he’ll just roll his eyes and ignore it. But it doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt, even if he has the world’s best poker face.
“Thank you for the coffee!” she interrupts, bright and genuinely grateful, and the marine biologist blinks at her, like he’s not used to thanks. He just nods gruffly, hiding his hands in his pockets, when he can’t figure out a proper response (like ‘you’re welcome’).
“I thought you’d prefer tea properly brewed,” he tells Giles, nodding in the direction of the office, and the Watcher lights up.
“Ah. You’d be right, thank you. Once is hardly the worst thing in the world, but they don’t know the proper steeping time, among other things.” Giles had given them a lecture on how to perfectly make tea, bemoaning tea packets. Willow’s pretty sure she’s the only one who paid attention, but then, she’d still had the crush on the librarian at the time. If nothing else, Dr. Kujo appreciating a good cup of tea might get him in Giles’ good graces.
Buffy’s dad then goes to lean against a wall, taking a sketchbook and pen out of his bag. He flips past page after page of marine wildlife, before passing off to something invisible that has to be his Stand, and suddenly the pen is moving quickly on its own, almost faster than the eye can follow.
“What the hell?” Xander asks, quieting a little as Willow elbows him.
“It’s probably not necessary, but Star might have seen something I didn’t,” he answers offhandedly, picking up one of the books and flipping through it, intense focus on the words in front of him. It doesn’t take too long before sketch after sketch is being torn out of the sketchbook, then placed carefully on the table. Willow picks up the top one, a drawing of the mask. If not for the obvious pen-strokes, she’d think it was a photograph.
“This is really good,” she tells him, in awe—better than anything the art classes has produced that she’s seen.
Dr. Kujo grabs the brim of his hat, still skimming through the book as another book floats off the pile and starts flipping through at much faster speed. “Figured even if Mister Xander had a picture on his phone, it wouldn’t hurt to have more.”
“Or I could just text everyone with the picture,” Xander suggests.
“Xander, stop being a jerk.” Buffy sounds actually mad, grabbing and flipping through the other sketches, eyes scanning at Slayer speed. “Or I’ll put you on zombie cat duty.”
The marine biologist shrugs and uses his Stand to pick that sketch back up. “I can still use it.” But—if she’s not imagining things, he’s quieter, which means Xander might’ve actually hurt the Adult Figure’s feelings.
“Ugh,” the Slayer interjects. Her attitude might be an exaggeration to distract, since Xander’s not jumping in to apologize. “I can’t say for sure if nothing else changed, but Mom definitely redecorated since I left. Pretty sure she either threw out some of my stuff and put it in storage, too. Which means I can’t tell if something’s there that isn’t supposed to be there.”
Dr. Kujo closes the book in a move that sounds more like a shot, closes his eyes, and just breathes. Then he opens them again. “I’m definitely going to regret this,” he announces, and that’s definite anger in his voice. Then he continues. “Your great-grandpa is Joseph Joestar.”
“The real-estate baron?” Giles exclaims, so whoever this is is a big deal. She vaguely remembers reading the name online, but she’d been more focused on local news at the time.
“He’s ancient, now, but I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t mind spoiling his great-granddaughter.” He doesn’t ‘oof’ or stagger as Buffy throws herself out of her chair into a hug, just awkwardly returns it—just how strong is he? And now, the number of floating books have doubled, though apparently the Stand couldn’t read and catch another book. “Yare yare daze.”
“I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t have gotten rid of anything,” Xander tries to tell her, and—yeah, okay, Joyce isn’t the Harrises, but still—
“You’re probably right. Doesn’t mean it’s okay,” Buffy’s dad rumbles as his daughter goes to finish her frapp.
“She told me to never come back. Maybe she thought I was actually listening to her,” Buffy agrees, tone tight with annoyance.
“Uh, guys—” Xander’s voice is hushed, all hostility gone.
“Xander, just stop,” Buffy snaps, and he holds his hands up in surrender.
“It’s just—I found the mask.” His voice is serious, which is what really convinces Willow that it’s dangerous, because Xander does have some sense of priorities and self-preservation sometimes.
They all crowd around the page, and—yeah, that’s the mask all right. “The spirit of a demon, Ovu Mobani, was contained within this mask around the 1600s,” Giles reads. “If awakened by blood, the demon, also known as the Evil Eye, will attempt to complete a ritual to escape its prison. It causes the dead to rise and attempt to wear the mask, with an increasing area and power with the increasing density of undead. These zombies will often attempt to kill the living to increase their numbers. If a sufficient number of zombies have gathered, the ritual will be complete.”
Dr. Kujo jabs a finger at the picture on Xander’s phone. “There’s blood.”
Willow zooms in. “Looks like a splinter or something. She probably cut herself when trying to hang it on the wall and didn’t think it was a big deal.” Also, if she were an evil trapped demon who’d tried this before, she’d almost certainly have tried to get a zombie to slightly damage the mask, either in the hopes that doing so would free her or make it easier to try again. Not like she’s going to say that out loud, though—Giles has been giving her enough Not Approving glances lately.
“Guess we ride to the rescue. Again,” Buffy still sounds vaguely annoyed.
The marine biologist grins. It’s vaguely terrifying, or, well, it would be, if he wasn’t on their side. “We get to do family bonding sooner rather than later.”
That gets the Slayer to smile brightly, at least. “I’ll bring the axe!”
Giles just sighs, probably thinking about his car, and Xander starts assembling the crossbow from his backpack, just in case.
Jotaro's referring to the 'punching things together' thing Buffy said earlier.
Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Summary: Xander continues to make things awkward, and they find a clue.
Word Count: 1477
Rating: Teen
Warnings: stereotyping, referenced parental abuse (Joyce, a little, the Harrises)
Willow wants to know everything.
That is, after all, her curse. Or superpower. She’s not sure which and doesn’t quite remember which Xander had said it was. Still, as Dr. Kujo excuses himself to make a phone call, she wants to know. How many Stand Users are there? How common are they? How does one fight one, you know, in the purely theoretical situation if they had to. What’s the Foundation he’s calling, that Buffy mentioned? How does it work? Are they likely to have any information about the supernatural, too? Why is he making the phone call elsewhere? Are there things he doesn’t want them to know? Well, not that that makes him bad, or anything—Giles is definitely keeping secrets, too, and he’s trustworthy.
She’s distracted when Xander puts his old battered phone on the table. He likes it when she pretends it’s a normal phone. Some people, like Cordelia and Buffy, don’t—Buffy because to her, having a new phone every year is normal until it isn’t and she doesn’t get what that means, Cordy because she knows exactly what it means. “Sorry that the screen’s busted, but I took a picture of the mask.”
“Ah, good thinking. That will come in use.” Of course, it’s not something Giles would think of.
Dr. Kujo returns, frowning. “They’re fairly sure it’s not a Stand User,” he announces, placing the promised frappuccino and coffees for Xander and Willow on the table. Willow blinks. There are times she forgets delivery is a thing. On paper, every restaurant (of which there are few) in Sunnydale delivers. In practice, it’s more like ‘hardly anyone does’ with a side of ‘if the delivery guy feels like it today’. She’d think an intimidating guy like Dr. Kujo would be even less likely to actually get delivery, even if that’s a little mean. Sometimes it saves your life, though. “It’s not a Stone Mask, either.”
“Well, no, it’s wood,” Xander replies with a ‘duh’ voice. He’s been in a bad mood, wanting to yell at Buffy, but—
Okay, it’s not like she’d say he was a bully. He’s not. She’d like to say it’s not in his nature, but it’s more like he has a finely tuned sense of the fights he can pick, and he does definitely have a mean streak. Maybe he’s just become cattier after dating Cordelia. If he picks a fight with Buffy, Dr. Kujo will step in, but if he snipes at her dad, he’ll just roll his eyes and ignore it. But it doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt, even if he has the world’s best poker face.
“Thank you for the coffee!” she interrupts, bright and genuinely grateful, and the marine biologist blinks at her, like he’s not used to thanks. He just nods gruffly, hiding his hands in his pockets, when he can’t figure out a proper response (like ‘you’re welcome’).
“I thought you’d prefer tea properly brewed,” he tells Giles, nodding in the direction of the office, and the Watcher lights up.
“Ah. You’d be right, thank you. Once is hardly the worst thing in the world, but they don’t know the proper steeping time, among other things.” Giles had given them a lecture on how to perfectly make tea, bemoaning tea packets. Willow’s pretty sure she’s the only one who paid attention, but then, she’d still had the crush on the librarian at the time. If nothing else, Dr. Kujo appreciating a good cup of tea might get him in Giles’ good graces.
Buffy’s dad then goes to lean against a wall, taking a sketchbook and pen out of his bag. He flips past page after page of marine wildlife, before passing off to something invisible that has to be his Stand, and suddenly the pen is moving quickly on its own, almost faster than the eye can follow.
“What the hell?” Xander asks, quieting a little as Willow elbows him.
“It’s probably not necessary, but Star might have seen something I didn’t,” he answers offhandedly, picking up one of the books and flipping through it, intense focus on the words in front of him. It doesn’t take too long before sketch after sketch is being torn out of the sketchbook, then placed carefully on the table. Willow picks up the top one, a drawing of the mask. If not for the obvious pen-strokes, she’d think it was a photograph.
“This is really good,” she tells him, in awe—better than anything the art classes has produced that she’s seen.
Dr. Kujo grabs the brim of his hat, still skimming through the book as another book floats off the pile and starts flipping through at much faster speed. “Figured even if Mister Xander had a picture on his phone, it wouldn’t hurt to have more.”
“Or I could just text everyone with the picture,” Xander suggests.
“Xander, stop being a jerk.” Buffy sounds actually mad, grabbing and flipping through the other sketches, eyes scanning at Slayer speed. “Or I’ll put you on zombie cat duty.”
The marine biologist shrugs and uses his Stand to pick that sketch back up. “I can still use it.” But—if she’s not imagining things, he’s quieter, which means Xander might’ve actually hurt the Adult Figure’s feelings.
“Ugh,” the Slayer interjects. Her attitude might be an exaggeration to distract, since Xander’s not jumping in to apologize. “I can’t say for sure if nothing else changed, but Mom definitely redecorated since I left. Pretty sure she either threw out some of my stuff and put it in storage, too. Which means I can’t tell if something’s there that isn’t supposed to be there.”
Dr. Kujo closes the book in a move that sounds more like a shot, closes his eyes, and just breathes. Then he opens them again. “I’m definitely going to regret this,” he announces, and that’s definite anger in his voice. Then he continues. “Your great-grandpa is Joseph Joestar.”
“The real-estate baron?” Giles exclaims, so whoever this is is a big deal. She vaguely remembers reading the name online, but she’d been more focused on local news at the time.
“He’s ancient, now, but I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t mind spoiling his great-granddaughter.” He doesn’t ‘oof’ or stagger as Buffy throws herself out of her chair into a hug, just awkwardly returns it—just how strong is he? And now, the number of floating books have doubled, though apparently the Stand couldn’t read and catch another book. “Yare yare daze.”
“I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t have gotten rid of anything,” Xander tries to tell her, and—yeah, okay, Joyce isn’t the Harrises, but still—
“You’re probably right. Doesn’t mean it’s okay,” Buffy’s dad rumbles as his daughter goes to finish her frapp.
“She told me to never come back. Maybe she thought I was actually listening to her,” Buffy agrees, tone tight with annoyance.
“Uh, guys—” Xander’s voice is hushed, all hostility gone.
“Xander, just stop,” Buffy snaps, and he holds his hands up in surrender.
“It’s just—I found the mask.” His voice is serious, which is what really convinces Willow that it’s dangerous, because Xander does have some sense of priorities and self-preservation sometimes.
They all crowd around the page, and—yeah, that’s the mask all right. “The spirit of a demon, Ovu Mobani, was contained within this mask around the 1600s,” Giles reads. “If awakened by blood, the demon, also known as the Evil Eye, will attempt to complete a ritual to escape its prison. It causes the dead to rise and attempt to wear the mask, with an increasing area and power with the increasing density of undead. These zombies will often attempt to kill the living to increase their numbers. If a sufficient number of zombies have gathered, the ritual will be complete.”
Dr. Kujo jabs a finger at the picture on Xander’s phone. “There’s blood.”
Willow zooms in. “Looks like a splinter or something. She probably cut herself when trying to hang it on the wall and didn’t think it was a big deal.” Also, if she were an evil trapped demon who’d tried this before, she’d almost certainly have tried to get a zombie to slightly damage the mask, either in the hopes that doing so would free her or make it easier to try again. Not like she’s going to say that out loud, though—Giles has been giving her enough Not Approving glances lately.
“Guess we ride to the rescue. Again,” Buffy still sounds vaguely annoyed.
The marine biologist grins. It’s vaguely terrifying, or, well, it would be, if he wasn’t on their side. “We get to do family bonding sooner rather than later.”
That gets the Slayer to smile brightly, at least. “I’ll bring the axe!”
Giles just sighs, probably thinking about his car, and Xander starts assembling the crossbow from his backpack, just in case.
