Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Shadowed Suspicion Chapter 261

[madimpossibledreamer]

Reminder some liberties taken with the Lords of Death as not much info on them still exists.

Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: The Lords of Death introduce themselves and Darling looks for weaknesses.
Word Count: 1638
Rating: Teen
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS

 

        Before any of them start talking, Whisper gives her a rundown quickly.  They can’t share the kills.  There’s a hierarchy, with two masters at the top, but they also have a complicated way of calling dibs.  In general, they’d prefer to kill you, but I’m not sure what their plan is.  I’ll give more about their personalities and powers, too.
        “To get this over with, I’m Buluc Chabtan, the strongest War God to exist,” the ruffian who first spoke boasts.  She finally realizes what’s so uncanny about him—other than the mark on his cheek, which is clearly on purpose like makeup, he’s remarkably clean—no blood, no dirt, no grime, no decay.  His skirt-cloth is pristine.  In a place like this, that’s clearly unnatural.  He’s the reason war captives were used for human sacrifices, because he’s involved with both.  He also enjoys gambling.  After the Hero Twins almost single-handedly saved the Mayan civilization from the demands of the Lords of Xibalba, he was tasked with hunting and dragging back sacrifices to power the Lords of Death and ensure they didn’t waste away.  Not to say that the rest of the Mayan gods are friendly in comparison, but most of them actually treat any sacrifices—even ‘lesser sacrifices’, like just spilling blood rather than killing—as the transactions they were meant to be.  They actually tried to help humans.
        Whisper doesn’t say names, but she suspects she knows some of them anyway—Balam and Kukulkan among them.  That makes her uncomfortable.  How long ago was it that she was arguing with Pixie that even bad people didn’t deserve to die, not necessarily?  She suspects that Whisper even agrees with her, merely relaying the words of Kukulkan describing the situation, but still, she doesn’t need to approve to accept their help for the time being, since she’s pretty sure they’re not sacrificing anyone for this.  Although—the thought hits her and she tries to hide all the sudden hurt and pain inside—maybe they already have.  They still don’t know what happened to Mr. Speedwagon and Jojo, after all.
        She quickly puts that out of her head.  She’ll miss something if she keeps being lost in her own head.
        “I am Awilix, queen of the night.  I wish you good fortune,” the catlike lady introduces herself, and yeah, that kind of figures.  Unlike the rest, she doesn’t like to kill outright.  I mean, they all enjoy watching suffering, but she loves it so much she’ll keep captives alive as…well, she calls them ‘companions’.  I think the more accurate term is probably ‘pets’.  She’s less evil than they are, maybe, because she’s seen topside as goddess of the moon, and she enjoys a good ballgame, so it’s said that she appears at major sports events, especially since she wasn’t one of those sealed by the Hero Twins.  Unfortunately, her appearances are accompanied by sickness, though whether it’s just a natural thing she does or something she’s consciously causing is not something Kukulkan knows.
        “You needn’t remember it, but I am Jacawitz, a minor fire god compared to these noble Lords,” the fire-wasp seeking for approval states quickly.  Not much to say on this one; he’s not kidding.  He started hanging around in the hopes of scraps, that one of the Lords of Death would take pity on him and allow him a sacrifice or two now and then.
        The bat blinks at them, largely unamused by the proceedings, it seems.  Or maybe the amount of light is just too bright for him.  “Camazotz.”  He doesn’t bother to elaborate further.  To be fair, it’d be kind of redundant, since it’s kind of obvious.  He’s a death bat, with some maybe-vampire connections.  Night, death, sacrifice, disease.  You know, the usual.  The one main thing of note is that he’s the patron of the House of Bats, one of the challenges they might throw you into.
        What looks like a tall humanoid alligator with mottled brown scales, nearly three meters high, looks a little ridiculous in his seat.  He hadn’t spoken up before, but now as he moves all the gold he’s wearing glitters in the firelight.  “You’re showing proper respect.  Keep it that way, or I’ll snap you in half.  You can call me Zipacna,” he rumbles, reminding her vaguely of the Down Path.  Maybe he’d served as some kind of model or something?  Maybe the Path voices model themselves after specific Lords of Death, depending on what’s most likely to work on the visitor?  He largely fits the stereotypes about giants, though from experience that’s usually rare.  Big, strong, but not entirely intelligent.  With the three of you, you could easily think circles around him.  Unfortunately, depending on how this shakes out, you won’t be dealing with just him, and he can easily serve as the brawn for another’s more proficient brains, but he has the same ego they all have.  If you can call to attention that his fellow Lords of Death don’t think much of him, that might serve as enough of a blow to his pride you might be able to cause infighting, so either of those approaches work as possibly taking advantage of his weaknesses.
        Another tall humanoid alligator, this one she’d thought to be a badly made mannequin duplicate with mottled brown scales and gold jewelry settles back in his chair, ripping predator’s fangs through a hunk of meat.  Another implicit threat.  “I’m his brother, Cabrakan.  Got any mountains you want flattened?”  He focuses on earthquakes and bringing things down.  Like Darling’s mood.  Yikes.
        The next one that speaks up scares her a little, because unlike the rest, he’d been standing in the shadows.  One of the fires grew in height to illuminate him further.  He’s wearing a giant snake as his outfit, the jaws framing his face.  Whisper shivers a little.  “I’m Tohil, but I don’t much care if you remember my name or not.”  He controlled the weather, and the crops flourished or died at his whims.  The rain and sun alike are his domain.  He can manipulate the environment, probably even inside a temple, given that Xibalba is no ordinary building. 
        She suspects that the last two who haven’t spoken are the masters Whisper spoke of, though she’s slightly surprised that the drunk deity is one.
        “I am Lord Akan,” the Lord of Death confirms.  “I’d be happy to share a drink with you, if you’re the types to indulge.  The rest of those here just turn it into a drinking contest, and it gets tiresome after a while.  There’s no such thing as a casual relaxing time with friends.”
        “No, thank you,” Darling manages politely, because this would definitely be more dangerous than a tea party with Pixie.
        He sighs morosely, but she can’t read if he’s truly lonely or if he’s just good at playing the harmless old drunk man to try to trap people just as effectively as the rest.  It’s hard to tell how much of his appearance is purposeful and how much is just sloppy.  The gown and jewelry don’t even look all that impressive.  Neither is the staff leaning on the table next to him, though he doesn’t bother to try to pick it up.  The iridescent insect wings fluttering behind him look a little unkempt, especially compared to the brilliant colors from Jacawitz.  His skin is yellowed, as are his eyes, and honestly he’d look old (which is weird when you’re thinking about beings that have been alive for thousands of years) aside from the bloating around his face and stomach.  The rest of him looks shrunken, dry and wrinkly.  Even the headdress looks a little wilted, but there’s what looks uncomfortably like an actual human femur bone in it.  She hopes it’s not, or at the very least that the person was dead before he’d taken it.  He doesn’t look well at all, but despite the jaundiced look to his eyes, there’s still an intelligent and clever light in them.
        The last of the Lords, this one wearing what looks like the top half of a human skull, straightens up from where he’d had one ear next to the dog’s muttering mouth, letting out a billowing cloud of smoke from his cigarette.  His appearance changes, the rolling folds of fat melting away to a skeleton, though unlike the last one this one has an owl’s head.  The collar dangling from his neck has a few…well, the eyes hanging from there by the nerve cords look real and fresh, even though she hopes they’re not, either.  She can smell him from here.  It’s still not as bad as some of the things Darling has unfortunately had to smell lately, but still, he stinks.  Even as a skeleton, which is…really weird.  “And I am Lord Kisin, though you may have heard of me by many names.”
        Xibalba is one, Whisper supplies silently.  Though it is less common, and has been lost to time whether he gave his name to the court over which he presided or vice versa.  The rest of the names won’t mean anything to you so I won’t bother sharing them.  He likes switching between burning and freezing and burning souls or using earthquakes.  The myths say that he may be afraid of loud noises or loud wailing.
        ‘May?’ she asks Whisper silently. 
        Even Balam and Kukulkan haven’t tried a direct attack on the greatest of the Lords of Death, so have been unable to verify any potential weaknesses.
        ‘Oh, that’s helpful,’ she responds, filling in the cynical position since Mr. Speedwagon can’t.  Whisper doesn’t bother to respond.
        “I believe you have a request to make of us gracious Lords.  I believe we can come to some kind of agreement.”  The skull grin reminds her a bit more of a jackal than a human.