![[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 group faces the next House.
Word Count: 1024
Rating: Teen
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS
It also looks calm and peaceful, which is clearly incorrect. The entire point of why they’re being sent through this gauntlet is to suffer. Of course, if they die, it’s not like the Lords of Death can avenge this slight on their own, given that she gets the feeling some of them, at least, are stuck down here. And no matter what they say, she gets the distinct feeling some of them might be a little too concerned about staying alive to risk fighting by themselves (or together, if they don’t trust the fellow Lords going with them).
If they weren’t such jerks, Darling thinks she might pity them. It’s like with Pixie. With so few other people to trust, it’s hard to get much of anything done.
The eerie feeling persists, like the landscape is haunted. Darling is tempted to send Whisper to scout but gets the feeling it’s a bad idea. Like they need to not split up, in this one.
“We’re not alone,” Mr. Brown whispers, bow already out and trained on the terrain like they’re going to be jumped any minute. The Captain seems to have gotten out a pistol or some other type of handgun (Darling doesn’t remember much from films, and it’s not like she’s ever been taken hunting, and while she could ask it’s less relevant than looking at where they are and getting ready for whatever lies ahead), businesslike and unfazed, which is fair, because while the rifle is accurate and good over long distances, with the terrain as it is there’s not as much visibility as there could be, and anyway everything has a kind of dreamlike state that doesn’t quite feel like reality.
Getting ambushed is not an unfounded fear, not with the way even the inanimate rocks seem alive, like they’re staring, waiting, watching. Like the rest of Xibalba had felt, before. And especially not with the fact that one of the Lords of Death had been watching them bumbling about in the dark and had hinted that they competed on ranking times, so there would be at least one in each of the Houses. She hadn’t stepped in, hadn’t interfered, but even Kukulkan had considered that an anomaly. The others wouldn’t be so kind, if indeed it was kindness that stopped the Queen of the Night from pouncing on them as prey.
Instead, she stares at the rocks and the stream and the twisted skeletons of trees and tries to decide what’s wrong, if it’s something she can even see.
And then she realizes, it’s like this is all unreal, like they’re in the landscape of a dream, because she can’t smell the cold, crisp waters of the creek or the gnarled bark of the branches, and even the creaking of the trees in the wind and the burbling of the creek is muffled, like she’s hearing it from a bad recording. The light is indeed bright, almost perfectly mimicking a bright, afternoon sun, but there’s something cold about it, like it’s a mere mockery and brings no actual warmth.
It’s impossible to tell how long they were in there, in the Hall of Night, but it doesn’t feel like it should be daytime, at least. Unless they were there long enough to let the Ascension ritual finish—but wait, that’s not right either; Lord Kisin had mentioned that time shouldn’t pass the same in Xibalba as outside. Most likely, then, the lighting situation is every bit as much of an illusion as the rest of it.
Nothing manmade is in sight, so it’s not like it would be haunted by something living, other than maybe a Lord of Death, but this is exactly the sort of place that would lead people to think that spirits inhabited this landscape. Nothing’s moving, nothing beside the stream, but every thief’s instinct is saying to run, that this is some sort of trap. Which is entirely a ridiculous thought to have, because of course this is. That’s the entire point.
And then something changes. It takes her a few moments to realize that the wind has shifted through Whisper’s feathers. It’s now blowing from the left and up the stream, instead of just up the stream. Darling starts to relax a little, but her friends absolutely don’t.
“We need to find shelter, quickly,” Mr. Brown suggests, and the Captain nods curtly.
She thinks she sees scales in the distance, behind one of the trees swaying, only they’re not moving normally, not as your average snake or lizard or whatever would. The movement looks bipedal, but she can’t even be sure she’s seen it, because she simply blinks and it’s gone. If it was one of the Lords watching, waiting to see them suffer, he wasn’t one to show up and brag, which is strange in of itself—which ones weren’t really interested in saying much when they introduced themselves again…?
And suddenly accompanying the change in wind direction, it’s a little colder. It hadn’t been warm, given that the sunlight had been without warmth, but it’s getting truly cold, now.
She’s surprised to find Mr. Brown handing her a light if warm coat from his bag. “Supply sergeant,” he explains with a grin and a shrug. “It’s not worth wasting her energy trying to get a nice coat out of Panzermensch, and anyway, it’s not as if their Russian endeavors went too well.”
The Captain’s smile is sharp and maybe even a little angry. She’s had to deal with that a lot recently. “They were not prepared. Fortunately, you are.” She takes out her binoculars, using them, Darling guesses, to search for a possible hiding location, though why that would be necessary she doesn’t quite understand. Still, if the other two believe it’s a good idea, she’s not going to argue. She’s new to this battle strategizing thing.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: The group faces the next House.
Word Count: 1024
Rating: Teen
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS
To Darling’s surprise, the door opened straight into the next area. She had thought that they would have to find the door into the next House, but apparently that isn’t the case. It doesn’t look like they’re in the pyramid anymore, or even indoors for that matter.
It also looks calm and peaceful, which is clearly incorrect. The entire point of why they’re being sent through this gauntlet is to suffer. Of course, if they die, it’s not like the Lords of Death can avenge this slight on their own, given that she gets the feeling some of them, at least, are stuck down here. And no matter what they say, she gets the distinct feeling some of them might be a little too concerned about staying alive to risk fighting by themselves (or together, if they don’t trust the fellow Lords going with them).
If they weren’t such jerks, Darling thinks she might pity them. It’s like with Pixie. With so few other people to trust, it’s hard to get much of anything done.
The eerie feeling persists, like the landscape is haunted. Darling is tempted to send Whisper to scout but gets the feeling it’s a bad idea. Like they need to not split up, in this one.
“We’re not alone,” Mr. Brown whispers, bow already out and trained on the terrain like they’re going to be jumped any minute. The Captain seems to have gotten out a pistol or some other type of handgun (Darling doesn’t remember much from films, and it’s not like she’s ever been taken hunting, and while she could ask it’s less relevant than looking at where they are and getting ready for whatever lies ahead), businesslike and unfazed, which is fair, because while the rifle is accurate and good over long distances, with the terrain as it is there’s not as much visibility as there could be, and anyway everything has a kind of dreamlike state that doesn’t quite feel like reality.
Getting ambushed is not an unfounded fear, not with the way even the inanimate rocks seem alive, like they’re staring, waiting, watching. Like the rest of Xibalba had felt, before. And especially not with the fact that one of the Lords of Death had been watching them bumbling about in the dark and had hinted that they competed on ranking times, so there would be at least one in each of the Houses. She hadn’t stepped in, hadn’t interfered, but even Kukulkan had considered that an anomaly. The others wouldn’t be so kind, if indeed it was kindness that stopped the Queen of the Night from pouncing on them as prey.
Instead, she stares at the rocks and the stream and the twisted skeletons of trees and tries to decide what’s wrong, if it’s something she can even see.
And then she realizes, it’s like this is all unreal, like they’re in the landscape of a dream, because she can’t smell the cold, crisp waters of the creek or the gnarled bark of the branches, and even the creaking of the trees in the wind and the burbling of the creek is muffled, like she’s hearing it from a bad recording. The light is indeed bright, almost perfectly mimicking a bright, afternoon sun, but there’s something cold about it, like it’s a mere mockery and brings no actual warmth.
It’s impossible to tell how long they were in there, in the Hall of Night, but it doesn’t feel like it should be daytime, at least. Unless they were there long enough to let the Ascension ritual finish—but wait, that’s not right either; Lord Kisin had mentioned that time shouldn’t pass the same in Xibalba as outside. Most likely, then, the lighting situation is every bit as much of an illusion as the rest of it.
Nothing manmade is in sight, so it’s not like it would be haunted by something living, other than maybe a Lord of Death, but this is exactly the sort of place that would lead people to think that spirits inhabited this landscape. Nothing’s moving, nothing beside the stream, but every thief’s instinct is saying to run, that this is some sort of trap. Which is entirely a ridiculous thought to have, because of course this is. That’s the entire point.
And then something changes. It takes her a few moments to realize that the wind has shifted through Whisper’s feathers. It’s now blowing from the left and up the stream, instead of just up the stream. Darling starts to relax a little, but her friends absolutely don’t.
“We need to find shelter, quickly,” Mr. Brown suggests, and the Captain nods curtly.
She thinks she sees scales in the distance, behind one of the trees swaying, only they’re not moving normally, not as your average snake or lizard or whatever would. The movement looks bipedal, but she can’t even be sure she’s seen it, because she simply blinks and it’s gone. If it was one of the Lords watching, waiting to see them suffer, he wasn’t one to show up and brag, which is strange in of itself—which ones weren’t really interested in saying much when they introduced themselves again…?
And suddenly accompanying the change in wind direction, it’s a little colder. It hadn’t been warm, given that the sunlight had been without warmth, but it’s getting truly cold, now.
She’s surprised to find Mr. Brown handing her a light if warm coat from his bag. “Supply sergeant,” he explains with a grin and a shrug. “It’s not worth wasting her energy trying to get a nice coat out of Panzermensch, and anyway, it’s not as if their Russian endeavors went too well.”
The Captain’s smile is sharp and maybe even a little angry. She’s had to deal with that a lot recently. “They were not prepared. Fortunately, you are.” She takes out her binoculars, using them, Darling guesses, to search for a possible hiding location, though why that would be necessary she doesn’t quite understand. Still, if the other two believe it’s a good idea, she’s not going to argue. She’s new to this battle strategizing thing.
