![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madimpossibledreamerMain Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: The Speedwagon Foundation agent Vasquez fights the Stand as best she can.
Word Count: 1384
Rating: Teen
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS
Of course, it wasn’t normal, but she hadn’t believed their luck was that bad, that they’d run into a Stand, practically right when they arrive. Then again, she remembers reading something about Stand Users being drawn together—
Hang on, is that actually it? she thinks, attempting to turn away as she watches the unnatural faux blood, completely immune to oxidization or decay like its real counterpart, form itself into an arrow, pointing at one particular stone. She actively panics a little as her arm reaches out, like she’s sleepwalking, without her consciously wanting it to do so. Part of her does, anyway. The other part of her is the conscious part of her mind, the part that is oddly detached, like this isn’t even actually happening. That time in ’87, the Speedwagon Foundation employees were killed trying to bring the Stand User Iggy to Mr. Joestar’s group. One was attacked by the User of Red Hot Chili Pepper in order to steal a uniform to blend in, but he didn’t actually seriously injure anyone, possibly because he was saving the power to deal with Mr. Joestar. Is that thing about Stand Users being drawn together true? Because sure, if we’d proved to be too much of a pain, we’d have been attacked, but the coincidence of being found the moment we entered the site…
She can’t even turn around to see if she’s being followed. Can’t even turn her head. Can’t even make it twitch, which is scary, but is also a pretty good indication of how much control that Stand has right now. She doesn’t think they’re following her; she doesn’t hear anything, anyway, though that could mean absolutely nothing. Dunstan, for example, is quiet and quick when he moves. As leaders go, though, Galanis tends to be cautious. She’s never said anything, but there were indications she might have actually put a combination of the knives she tends to carry around with her and what little hamon she knows to use in something like a war zone, even if she downplays her ability and refers to herself as something like a ‘hamon college drop-out’. I’m guessing she probably had Dunstan send out his Stand to try to find the User.
She doesn’t gasp, out loud anyway, as the stones swing inward and the ‘blood’ pools again as she waits, nonchalantly, like she’s just going to the movies and not, probably, her own demise. She’s able to react in the confines of her own head, though, even as she thinks, oddly calm.
An archaeological site this close to a major city wouldn’t have gone this long without being checked out pretty thoroughly with ground penetrating radar. How would they have managed to hide something like a secret chamber?
She follows the liquid as it moves. She’d expected the inside to be gloomy, without light, even, and maybe cramped. Instead, there’s a faint glow reflecting off the walls as she descends the stairs, and the reasoning becomes pretty clear almost immediately.
As a kid, she’d been obsessed with finding treasure. Grabbed one of those old metal detectors from a pawn shop and got in trouble for digging up the neighbor’s lawn. Read up on all sorts of equipment, and she still remembers clearly that conductive metals—or even soil components—can pretty easily block that kind of equipment. And gold is definitely conductive, making it more than just a pretty little decoration. There’s some sort of light further in reflecting off all the walls, getting brighter as she descends.
They definitely saw me go in, though. And from what I’ve read about Stone Temple Pilot in the Archives, it’ll definitely find it easy to follow me through all of this stone.
When she gets to the bottom of the stairs, there’s torches on the walls. A lot of them. They illuminate the gold gleaming off the walls, which are lined with carvings of what can only be Pillar People, judging by the individual horns and arrangements.
There’s also just…bodies lining the walls. She doesn’t smell them, and now that she thinks about it, she’s pretty sure she hadn’t actually felt the stone beneath her hand as she’d touched it to open the secret door in the first place. They were all mutilated before or shortly after death, and the way that the blood just flows from them into channels lining the passageway is unnatural, too—some of them certainly look like they’ve been dead for several days, certainly, based on coloration and apparent rigidity, and yet the blood still runs from their bodies like they’ve only been dead a few minutes.
She hadn’t made a life-and-death study of religion or anything resembling it, because unlike for the ISWC it hadn’t been necessary. The closest she’d come was keeping her Smithsonian subscription current, and, well. This isn’t the Aztecs, or the Mayans, or any Olmec or pre-Olmec civilization for that matter. Oh, sure, they’d been discovering research that such civilizations did, in fact, practice some human sacrifice, and that these sacrifices were often gruesome and bloody. But the conquistadors had certainly lied about one thing—they weren’t to this particular scale. It certainly wouldn’t have generated enough blood to keep, say, a race of vampires alive. There’s also the irony that the blood spilled is supposed to keep the sun alive, when the sun is the enemy of vampires and the Pillar People. That part doesn’t add up, which means that it is entirely possible that either this structure is being coopted for other use or was never a human construction to begin with.
One of the bodies twitches, nailed to the floor, as she passes by, still in a trance, and she recognizes the face—one of those dubbed ‘Slaypires’, in a hasty memo sent from the ISWC. She, too, bleeds. Some are clearly dead, but now as she looks, others are clearly not human. Some are probably even the ‘demons’ they have been warned about.
The slope here would be imperceptible if not for the blood still running down the channels, following the path of gravity.
Could this be powering the Stand? …No, I don’t think so; only one Stand’s ever been recorded eating, and the only power-up I’m aware of involves special Stand Arrows. This feels like a separate phenomenon, though it’s possibly not a coincidence that both involve blood.
So, ranged automatic Stand, probably, since there’s no sign of the User anywhere nearby and certainly not within line of sight. Don’t think it has enough of a body to be a weakness, though even if it was I don’t have enough control over my own body to manage to attack it. It is one of those varieties that’s visible to non-Stand Users—probably has to be, to have any use. And it might only be able to affect one person at a time, and probably has some sort of condition at that—let’s face it, probably me reading it, maybe out loud—or it would have gone for the only Stand User first, or all of us at once. Its choice of me as a target first doesn’t make sense. Question is, where is it leading me?
The liquid rolls over a channel to the side, leading to a small side room. She follows it and then stands there silently as it rolls up the wall, ready to write another instruction.
All right, it’s got me here, but—
“Drown in the river of life Pathetic creature, you won’t be mourned or lonely for long”
That isn’t nearly as straightforward as the other instructions; what, am I supposed to go out and try to drown myself in one of those channels? They aren’t even wide enough to stick my head in—
And then she chokes and starts gagging. There’s liquid in her throat. What—
Don’t tell me this bastard has a Stand that can control reality itself—
The torches on the walls flicker as she falls to her knees.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: The Speedwagon Foundation agent Vasquez fights the Stand as best she can.
Word Count: 1384
Rating: Teen
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS
At first, it’s easy enough for Vasquez to believe she’s just…playing along with the practical joke. Marchant’s such a timid mouse. It’s the point at which the blood-like liquid rolls up, impossibly, moving against gravity along the rock next to one of the staircases, that she feels a chill run up her spine.
Of course, it wasn’t normal, but she hadn’t believed their luck was that bad, that they’d run into a Stand, practically right when they arrive. Then again, she remembers reading something about Stand Users being drawn together—
Hang on, is that actually it? she thinks, attempting to turn away as she watches the unnatural faux blood, completely immune to oxidization or decay like its real counterpart, form itself into an arrow, pointing at one particular stone. She actively panics a little as her arm reaches out, like she’s sleepwalking, without her consciously wanting it to do so. Part of her does, anyway. The other part of her is the conscious part of her mind, the part that is oddly detached, like this isn’t even actually happening. That time in ’87, the Speedwagon Foundation employees were killed trying to bring the Stand User Iggy to Mr. Joestar’s group. One was attacked by the User of Red Hot Chili Pepper in order to steal a uniform to blend in, but he didn’t actually seriously injure anyone, possibly because he was saving the power to deal with Mr. Joestar. Is that thing about Stand Users being drawn together true? Because sure, if we’d proved to be too much of a pain, we’d have been attacked, but the coincidence of being found the moment we entered the site…
She can’t even turn around to see if she’s being followed. Can’t even turn her head. Can’t even make it twitch, which is scary, but is also a pretty good indication of how much control that Stand has right now. She doesn’t think they’re following her; she doesn’t hear anything, anyway, though that could mean absolutely nothing. Dunstan, for example, is quiet and quick when he moves. As leaders go, though, Galanis tends to be cautious. She’s never said anything, but there were indications she might have actually put a combination of the knives she tends to carry around with her and what little hamon she knows to use in something like a war zone, even if she downplays her ability and refers to herself as something like a ‘hamon college drop-out’. I’m guessing she probably had Dunstan send out his Stand to try to find the User.
She doesn’t gasp, out loud anyway, as the stones swing inward and the ‘blood’ pools again as she waits, nonchalantly, like she’s just going to the movies and not, probably, her own demise. She’s able to react in the confines of her own head, though, even as she thinks, oddly calm.
An archaeological site this close to a major city wouldn’t have gone this long without being checked out pretty thoroughly with ground penetrating radar. How would they have managed to hide something like a secret chamber?
She follows the liquid as it moves. She’d expected the inside to be gloomy, without light, even, and maybe cramped. Instead, there’s a faint glow reflecting off the walls as she descends the stairs, and the reasoning becomes pretty clear almost immediately.
As a kid, she’d been obsessed with finding treasure. Grabbed one of those old metal detectors from a pawn shop and got in trouble for digging up the neighbor’s lawn. Read up on all sorts of equipment, and she still remembers clearly that conductive metals—or even soil components—can pretty easily block that kind of equipment. And gold is definitely conductive, making it more than just a pretty little decoration. There’s some sort of light further in reflecting off all the walls, getting brighter as she descends.
They definitely saw me go in, though. And from what I’ve read about Stone Temple Pilot in the Archives, it’ll definitely find it easy to follow me through all of this stone.
When she gets to the bottom of the stairs, there’s torches on the walls. A lot of them. They illuminate the gold gleaming off the walls, which are lined with carvings of what can only be Pillar People, judging by the individual horns and arrangements.
There’s also just…bodies lining the walls. She doesn’t smell them, and now that she thinks about it, she’s pretty sure she hadn’t actually felt the stone beneath her hand as she’d touched it to open the secret door in the first place. They were all mutilated before or shortly after death, and the way that the blood just flows from them into channels lining the passageway is unnatural, too—some of them certainly look like they’ve been dead for several days, certainly, based on coloration and apparent rigidity, and yet the blood still runs from their bodies like they’ve only been dead a few minutes.
She hadn’t made a life-and-death study of religion or anything resembling it, because unlike for the ISWC it hadn’t been necessary. The closest she’d come was keeping her Smithsonian subscription current, and, well. This isn’t the Aztecs, or the Mayans, or any Olmec or pre-Olmec civilization for that matter. Oh, sure, they’d been discovering research that such civilizations did, in fact, practice some human sacrifice, and that these sacrifices were often gruesome and bloody. But the conquistadors had certainly lied about one thing—they weren’t to this particular scale. It certainly wouldn’t have generated enough blood to keep, say, a race of vampires alive. There’s also the irony that the blood spilled is supposed to keep the sun alive, when the sun is the enemy of vampires and the Pillar People. That part doesn’t add up, which means that it is entirely possible that either this structure is being coopted for other use or was never a human construction to begin with.
One of the bodies twitches, nailed to the floor, as she passes by, still in a trance, and she recognizes the face—one of those dubbed ‘Slaypires’, in a hasty memo sent from the ISWC. She, too, bleeds. Some are clearly dead, but now as she looks, others are clearly not human. Some are probably even the ‘demons’ they have been warned about.
The slope here would be imperceptible if not for the blood still running down the channels, following the path of gravity.
Could this be powering the Stand? …No, I don’t think so; only one Stand’s ever been recorded eating, and the only power-up I’m aware of involves special Stand Arrows. This feels like a separate phenomenon, though it’s possibly not a coincidence that both involve blood.
So, ranged automatic Stand, probably, since there’s no sign of the User anywhere nearby and certainly not within line of sight. Don’t think it has enough of a body to be a weakness, though even if it was I don’t have enough control over my own body to manage to attack it. It is one of those varieties that’s visible to non-Stand Users—probably has to be, to have any use. And it might only be able to affect one person at a time, and probably has some sort of condition at that—let’s face it, probably me reading it, maybe out loud—or it would have gone for the only Stand User first, or all of us at once. Its choice of me as a target first doesn’t make sense. Question is, where is it leading me?
The liquid rolls over a channel to the side, leading to a small side room. She follows it and then stands there silently as it rolls up the wall, ready to write another instruction.
All right, it’s got me here, but—
“Drown in the river of life Pathetic creature, you won’t be mourned or lonely for long”
That isn’t nearly as straightforward as the other instructions; what, am I supposed to go out and try to drown myself in one of those channels? They aren’t even wide enough to stick my head in—
And then she chokes and starts gagging. There’s liquid in her throat. What—
Don’t tell me this bastard has a Stand that can control reality itself—
The torches on the walls flicker as she falls to her knees.
