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madimpossibledreameri'm doing better at getting this beta'd (for now). yay
Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: Jojo and his friends have won, for now, and regroup to prepare for the fights ahead.
Word Count: 1042
Rating: Teen
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS
“Hey!” Robin’s upset, as makes sense, on behalf of his patient.
The blond just raises an eyebrow. “If you don’t settle down and stop making this healing process harder on two exhausted friends who have been doing nothing but fight, I do believe we have some rope in one of our packs.” Jojo opens his mouth, and Fitz immediately shakes his head. “I don’t want to hear it.”
Jojo stops whining, smiling like he’s not hurt at all. But then, if he’s used to pain…
“Was that a nightmare?” Darling wonders quietly, and—well, that would be the easy way out, wouldn’t it? Tempting, if inaccurate.
“Is all we see or seem but a dream within a dream?” It’s a shock to find Jojo of all people quoting, but then, he’s certainly no Luddite, despite his attempts to appear otherwise. He grins wider at Fitz’s incredulous look. “I did actually read our class assignments. Most of the time. More to the point, this is definitely the real world, and where we were…” He pauses, trying to put words to it. “It was real, too, depending on how you define ‘reality’. Real enough to, you know, hurt. Real enough it could have killed us. I’m pretty sure it was what we tend to call ‘Hell Dimensions’—dimensions you can access from our world that aren’t exactly, er, let’s say ‘friendly’ to your average human. It was dream-adjacent, or I wouldn’t have been able to mess with the structure, but I think it was some kind of mental construct.”
She’d been expecting that, really—some aspects, like themselves, obviously weren’t original, and some parts were surreal, like the blood-water. She’d have liked it if the recordings, if the monsters weren’t real, but then…they wouldn’t be as terrible if they weren’t. She considers Schmied as part of that descriptor.
Darling makes a face, and Jojo chuckles and shrugs, carefully, to not interrupt the combined Stand-and-Hamon healing any more difficult. “Yeah, the concept kinda hurts the brain. Just don’t think about it too much.” From the sound of things, he has had practice.
“What I don’t understand is how he had one in the first place. He should’ve only had the ranch, according to the legends,” Fitz interrupts, sounding more coherent than he probably has any right to be.
“Well, they also mentioned his ambition to take over the Underworld, and some people say peyote trips can take you to his realm, so that’s part of why they take their rituals so seriously. ‘Course, we Americans really like ignoring the fine print.” Jojo flexes his leg, discomfort clear in the careful way he retains his smile. Still, he seems well enough to move, as Fitz helps him to his feet and he puts weight on the leg. “They went for ‘greed’ as ‘greed and gluttony’, which is pretty common. More food, more power. Same thing.”
“I think he was working for Wolfram & Hart, so maybe they helped him?” Darling suggests, causing them to fall silent as they think about it.
“I don’t know; if they’re related at all it seems more like he was a client, so maybe it’s less working ‘for’ them and more ‘with’ them,” Robin responds.
Jojo considers that. “I mean, I can’t actually say if I’ve ever met or heard of a client, so I don’t know how it’d be different, but maybe.”
Robin shrugs that off and moves on to the idea that’s bugging him. “So, Jojo, what was up with the furless squirrels?”
He laughs, but then, from his stories, perhaps the absurd is often present when facing non-fictional horror. “From what I remember, the mutant squirrels have something to do with the dementia effect, but it took me forever to remember that it wasn’t Tukakame himself doing that because of the dementia effect. Don’t ask me to explain the mutant squirrels, though. I don’t remember that bit of the book.”
The Captain crosses her arms, feeling the need to talk more about what had happened but unable to find the correct words, the correct approach. She doesn’t even know what she wants, whether she wants to apologize, whether she wants sympathy. If she wants someone to say it’s all right, despite the fact it’s obviously not. “My great-grandfather was a Nazi.”
“…Yes?” Jojo blinks his remaining eye at her, and she feels a little better. That it’s said and acknowledged, by a man who knew him, at least through his own great-grandfather’s memories.
“It’d be easier, if this wasn’t a true statement I could say.” Robin pats her shoulder. She knows it’s the most she’s said on the subject.
Fitz, shockingly, is the one that replies. “My experience is limited to books, I’m afraid, but a common thread is that when dealing with fascism, the easiest path is usually the wrong one.”
Beefheart sighs, but he’s right. “Like forgetting. Or turning a blind eye.”
“Exactly.” Fitz is sympathetic; they all are, but there’s no softening the harsh truth. It is what it is.
“You want to talk about it now?” Jojo asks her, gaze knowing but not judging.
She pauses, closing her eyes to take inventory. It hurts. The world is broken and she doesn’t know if she’s strong enough to piece it back together. She’s upset on her Großvater’s behalf, even knowing who and what he was. She feels responsible, some days, despite how irrational it is, because she can’t change the past of other people, let alone her own. She’s afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing and hurting others, continuing a tradition best left in the past.
But she’s not alone. She has the best partner she could ever have asked for, an adorable teenager coming into her own confidence and values, an eccentric, reckless friend, and his bookish, contradictory friend who is finally opening up. Being a hero is hard and often thankless, but however broken the world is, they can make it better. Perhaps no one will even notice, but it is worth it.
She opens her eyes and shakes her head, smiling. “No, thank you. I think I’ve said what I need to say for now.”
Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: Jojo and his friends have won, for now, and regroup to prepare for the fights ahead.
Word Count: 1042
Rating: Teen
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS
At first the Captain thinks Jojo’s sounds of pain are genuine, until Fitz elbows him.
“Hey!” Robin’s upset, as makes sense, on behalf of his patient.
The blond just raises an eyebrow. “If you don’t settle down and stop making this healing process harder on two exhausted friends who have been doing nothing but fight, I do believe we have some rope in one of our packs.” Jojo opens his mouth, and Fitz immediately shakes his head. “I don’t want to hear it.”
Jojo stops whining, smiling like he’s not hurt at all. But then, if he’s used to pain…
“Was that a nightmare?” Darling wonders quietly, and—well, that would be the easy way out, wouldn’t it? Tempting, if inaccurate.
“Is all we see or seem but a dream within a dream?” It’s a shock to find Jojo of all people quoting, but then, he’s certainly no Luddite, despite his attempts to appear otherwise. He grins wider at Fitz’s incredulous look. “I did actually read our class assignments. Most of the time. More to the point, this is definitely the real world, and where we were…” He pauses, trying to put words to it. “It was real, too, depending on how you define ‘reality’. Real enough to, you know, hurt. Real enough it could have killed us. I’m pretty sure it was what we tend to call ‘Hell Dimensions’—dimensions you can access from our world that aren’t exactly, er, let’s say ‘friendly’ to your average human. It was dream-adjacent, or I wouldn’t have been able to mess with the structure, but I think it was some kind of mental construct.”
She’d been expecting that, really—some aspects, like themselves, obviously weren’t original, and some parts were surreal, like the blood-water. She’d have liked it if the recordings, if the monsters weren’t real, but then…they wouldn’t be as terrible if they weren’t. She considers Schmied as part of that descriptor.
Darling makes a face, and Jojo chuckles and shrugs, carefully, to not interrupt the combined Stand-and-Hamon healing any more difficult. “Yeah, the concept kinda hurts the brain. Just don’t think about it too much.” From the sound of things, he has had practice.
“What I don’t understand is how he had one in the first place. He should’ve only had the ranch, according to the legends,” Fitz interrupts, sounding more coherent than he probably has any right to be.
“Well, they also mentioned his ambition to take over the Underworld, and some people say peyote trips can take you to his realm, so that’s part of why they take their rituals so seriously. ‘Course, we Americans really like ignoring the fine print.” Jojo flexes his leg, discomfort clear in the careful way he retains his smile. Still, he seems well enough to move, as Fitz helps him to his feet and he puts weight on the leg. “They went for ‘greed’ as ‘greed and gluttony’, which is pretty common. More food, more power. Same thing.”
“I think he was working for Wolfram & Hart, so maybe they helped him?” Darling suggests, causing them to fall silent as they think about it.
“I don’t know; if they’re related at all it seems more like he was a client, so maybe it’s less working ‘for’ them and more ‘with’ them,” Robin responds.
Jojo considers that. “I mean, I can’t actually say if I’ve ever met or heard of a client, so I don’t know how it’d be different, but maybe.”
Robin shrugs that off and moves on to the idea that’s bugging him. “So, Jojo, what was up with the furless squirrels?”
He laughs, but then, from his stories, perhaps the absurd is often present when facing non-fictional horror. “From what I remember, the mutant squirrels have something to do with the dementia effect, but it took me forever to remember that it wasn’t Tukakame himself doing that because of the dementia effect. Don’t ask me to explain the mutant squirrels, though. I don’t remember that bit of the book.”
The Captain crosses her arms, feeling the need to talk more about what had happened but unable to find the correct words, the correct approach. She doesn’t even know what she wants, whether she wants to apologize, whether she wants sympathy. If she wants someone to say it’s all right, despite the fact it’s obviously not. “My great-grandfather was a Nazi.”
“…Yes?” Jojo blinks his remaining eye at her, and she feels a little better. That it’s said and acknowledged, by a man who knew him, at least through his own great-grandfather’s memories.
“It’d be easier, if this wasn’t a true statement I could say.” Robin pats her shoulder. She knows it’s the most she’s said on the subject.
Fitz, shockingly, is the one that replies. “My experience is limited to books, I’m afraid, but a common thread is that when dealing with fascism, the easiest path is usually the wrong one.”
Beefheart sighs, but he’s right. “Like forgetting. Or turning a blind eye.”
“Exactly.” Fitz is sympathetic; they all are, but there’s no softening the harsh truth. It is what it is.
“You want to talk about it now?” Jojo asks her, gaze knowing but not judging.
She pauses, closing her eyes to take inventory. It hurts. The world is broken and she doesn’t know if she’s strong enough to piece it back together. She’s upset on her Großvater’s behalf, even knowing who and what he was. She feels responsible, some days, despite how irrational it is, because she can’t change the past of other people, let alone her own. She’s afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing and hurting others, continuing a tradition best left in the past.
But she’s not alone. She has the best partner she could ever have asked for, an adorable teenager coming into her own confidence and values, an eccentric, reckless friend, and his bookish, contradictory friend who is finally opening up. Being a hero is hard and often thankless, but however broken the world is, they can make it better. Perhaps no one will even notice, but it is worth it.
She opens her eyes and shakes her head, smiling. “No, thank you. I think I’ve said what I need to say for now.”
