Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Shadowed Suspicion Chapter 257

[madimpossibledreamer]

Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: For better or worse, the group make their choice and continue forward.
Word Count: 1090
Rating: Teen
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS

 

        It seems for good or bad the Captain’s just as confused as Darling.  It makes her feel better about her own intelligence, but it’s also comforting when other people have the answers she doesn’t. 
        The deep voice, Down Path, speaks up again.  “Do you need more information?  We could keep offering more, but the clock is ticking.  Not to hurry you or anything, but the pressure’s on.”  Which could be true, a warning about what’s to come, or a salesperson trying to nag them into making a bad decision.
        This is why most people ignore the pathways talking, it seems.  Maybe there’s something of value there but it’s useless if they can’t tease it out of the rest of the rubbish.  It’s unclear if most people just choose at random, a one in four chance that they’ll make it out alive, or if something is missing due to the very nature of this not being a natural path to Xibalba but one pulled together by the spell.  If the latter, it’s probably on purpose, to make it harder for anyone to get to Mr. Wyndam-Price at the end of all of this.
        “Miss Violetta, this is supposed to be a city of the dead, with only Wyndam-Price as a living person there, right?” Mr. Brown asks suddenly, and, unsure of where he’s going with this, she nods.
        “I can’t see anything, even with Panzermensch or the binoculars, and Whisper scouting would no doubt count as ‘choosing’ a path,” the Captain warns.  “And as mentioned there’s not enough room here to set up radar equipment, although I think that would be obscured as well.”
        In response, all he does is grin.  “Give me a minute,” he responds, closing his eyes and slowing his breathing, the usual golden glow of hamon surrounding him.
        “That hurts my eyes,” the Right Path announces with a huff, but Mr. Brown doesn’t even stir, concentrating too deeply to be bothered.  Probably partially because there’s no indication that any of the pathways have eyes or any physical form at all.  It’s odd that none of them even have the stone carvings of faces, but, Whisper informs her from the knowledge the black jaguar gave her, that’s so that there’s no body language they can try to read.  If even just a stone carving of a head is used, it needs to be animated, according to the way this type of magic works, and for those who know people that might be enough of a hint to save people, which is what the Lords don’t want.  Just in case, though, Darling and the Captain don’t talk, although the Captain has begun pacing and staring thoughtfully at the roads again.
        And then there’s laughter, soft but genuinely amused, as Mr. Brown opens his eyes and walks to the Captain to put a hand on her shoulder.  “They’re all lying—except for Right when they mention we could go back, I’d guess, not like that applies to us.  The rest is incorrect, including probably the part about wanting to watch us suffer.  No one said this was a liar’s room, Cyborg, though I appreciate the effort.  And if it’s not a liar’s room, then you can’t solve it like one.”
        “Well, what are we supposed to do then?  That darkness,” she gestures somewhat violently at the ominous dense fog-like gloom waiting behind each doorway, “…resists every attempt to penetrate it!”  Not good.  It sounds like the Lords and the atmosphere of the place is already getting in her head, though Darling understands the frustration.  She’s feeling it, too.  She’s just not demonstrative about it like the Captain is.
        “It’s that way.”  Mr. Brown points toward the stairs going up. “Your unconventional approach inspired me, and I decided to try to sense hamon.  I wouldn’t have tried to sense the life presence of a location if you hadn’t already gotten me thinking outside the box.  That direction has the least amount of life, so, it’s probably the correct direction to find an underworld and the ones who rule it.”
        That’s actually really clever, but then, he is, generally, and good about keeping his cool.  Captain von Stroheim usually is, too, but she’d been upset by the demon and the fascist scientist and had never quite found her equilibrium again.  They could’ve used a break, but they hadn’t really had the time.
        “That sounds like a really long shot.  Are you really sure about this?” the Up Path asks, but if Darling isn’t wrong, that sounds like it could be nervousness in the stairs’ voice.  Then again, maybe it’s trying to trick her like that.
        The Captain sighs and looks at her friend with a rueful smile.  “You’re sure.”
        “I took a while because I wanted to double check my work.  I wouldn’t gamble with your life, or that of Miss Violetta,” he confirms, not sounding insulted by the implied doubt. 
        She nods decisively and moves in front of the stairs leading up.  “In case you are going to ask, I trust my partner.  If he says it’s the path leading up, it’s the path leading up.”  He knows her better than Darling, and so he probably knew that to begin with—that no doubt was meant despite Captain von Stroheim’s words, just for him to quantify how sure he was about his choice.
        “If you sense any hesitation from me, it’s because I’m new to this.  Not because I don’t trust them,” Darling clarifies, going to stand next to them.  The Captain looks approving, and Mr. Brown smiles at her.  It feels nice to have people who actually think she’s doing the right thing.
        “Well, go on.  Take your path,” the Right Path sneers.
        “And don’t look back.  Showing hesitation isn’t good,” the deep voice of the Down Path advises.
        “Good luck,” the Left Path wishes, as the Captain and Panzermensch, then Mr. Brown, hamon crackling around his hands in an attempt to give them some sort of light, and then finally Darling and Whisper take a step onto the stairs leading up and the smoke swallows everything.  It doesn’t take too long, really, but it feels like it, the kind of moment where it feels like the hush of anticipation lasts forever.

        “Wow, Boss, you’re really taking a step into this thing yourself?” the Up Path exclaims, and the bloated figure drops its cigarette, waving away the last of the directions for the next time of their use.  Sensing his wishes, the dog at his side lopes after the group.