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madimpossibledreamerMain Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: The game starts in earnest.
Word Count: 1408
Rating: Teen
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS
Of course, she sees everything a little more removed from the action. Thinking about it, she’s pretty sure the Captain just chose her for protecting the goal because of Whisper, and she trusted Robin to be able to do it. She doesn’t think the middle of the field usually sees this much action, but it’s probably a good thing that most of it is going on further from the weaker players. It’d probably be a really different experience if she was out near the middle, where she’s seeing less of little moments across the field and more one-on-one battles with the Lords of Death. She doesn’t ask the others about their experiences later, though, because, well, there are more important things going on, but there are bits and pieces that stick in her mind years later.
In order of memorability, and not really chronological order, she lists them as follows:
Play #1: Probably because she still feels guilty about it, even if she’s barely any good at any of this. The first goal the opposite team makes. It turns out that a dropped ball is still considered ‘live’, or whatever. There’s no interruption by their so-called wonderful referee, Cabrakan, to move the ball to an official spot, or whatever. Actually, she’s not unconvinced that he might’ve just fallen asleep. But no one, not even Balam, is protesting this, so apparently it’s normal? Apparently there’s not even anything against the same team that dropped the ball continuing to use it, although with a roll of the eyes Tohil steps aside and out of the way—lucky for him, too, or Darling’s pretty sure Buluc Chabtan would probably have kicked him and the ball, even if he was still kind of attached. From a glimpse at the Captain’s expression, it’s a bigger deal than it is to Darling, who only vaguely knows that’s a thing from class. Though generally it’s not like they bothered explaining much of anything to her, since she was generally considered a team handicap anyway.
And then the Lord of War throws it to Camazotz, which of course they’ve lost track of. They really have to watch out for the flying ones. He does a good job passing the ball between his legs and his wings for a few seconds, and Whisper flies as fast as he can but he’s on the wrong side of the ball and basically just manages to catch it, rather than stop it.
It doesn’t matter what direction the ball goes through the stone goal circle on the wall, apparently, because Cabrakan announces without opening his eye that’s not swollen shut, “Xibalba-One.” He’d have trouble sounding less enthusiastic, Darling suspects.
“Looks like that’s actually a tactic,” Mr. Brown tells her quietly, hand on her shoulder. How he’s actually able to talk to her and actually be heard over the rowdy audience probably has to do with the mysteries of Hamon. “If you put it in going that way, the other side has to turn around to go the right direction. We’ll have to keep an eye out for that next time.” He’s so sure they’ll do better.
She does manage successfully to pass, although she quickly loses track of who has the ball.
Play #2: The moment that she decides the Lords of Death are probably weirder than their group, which—she loves them all dearly, but that is quite an accomplishment. She thinks the next incident comes after, as retaliation, but she’s not sure. She does remember Lord Akan yelling at the Queen of the Night hanging out around the middle, though. (Mostly she’s just...dashing around and tripping the other Lords of Death, which looks infuriating, but apparently isn’t against the rules, either.) “I didn’t say you could use your powers, Awilix. Let Camazotz speak!”
She shrugs, like she’s not taking this seriously, either. “You didn’t say I couldn’t, and how could you tell? He barely talks anyway!”
The action actually stops. Everyone looks at the bat-god, who...basically looks the same. Maybe a little angrier than normal, but that’s not saying much.
Lord Kisin taps his foot. “Please?”
Camazotz doesn’t actually say anything after that point, but the Lords look content, and the game just starts again.
Play #3: She’d been arrogant, or, well, no, more like naïve enough at the time to think this meant she was getting a handle on the game. She wasn’t, but the others were too polite to correct the impression. There’s the moment Whisper first manages to block a goal, and Buluc Chabtan looks almost as proud as Mr. Brown, which is just kind of wrong. It’s hard to tell if they can actually see the Stands. They can see Whisper, of course, because everyone can, but they act more like they can sense rather than see Panzermensch. They’re so surprised Whisper almost drops the ball in place, only they fumble a throw instead.
Play #4: For the life of her, Darling can’t actually remember the context. She wants to, desperately, because it’s such an interesting image, but she can’t conjure up anything around it. And during one particularly memorable part, Mr. Brown manages to catch the ball using just his elbow and…keep it there. With the crackle and glow, it’s probable that he’s using the Ripple like a particularly strong static electricity to just...keep it there. Everyone had reacted with surprise, and she vaguely remembers one of the Lords of Death, but not which one, asking Cabrakan if that was against the rules or something. She’s not sure if her imagination is rewriting her memories and if he’d just not responded or if he’d actually, as she remembers, snored in response, but either way the game had continued.
Piece #1: This one isn’t really so much of a piece as much of a lack of one, and she can’t describe it in terms of a single play, either. A hole in the puzzle, where you’ve nearly completed it and then spend the next hour trying to work out where the last piece got to. It’s more of an impression of what should be there than anything. Balam, it turns out, isn’t one to abuse his powers. That, or he’s not just doing this to amuse himself and is actually taking it seriously. He doesn’t have any stand-out moments, but he is always right where he needs to be, and he’s so quietly understated about his presence that a lot of the Lords of Death seem to be overlooking him, which, well. Their mistake, really.
Play #5: She knows less of the details of their goals than the ones on her end, mostly because, well, it’s chaotic, some of the Lords of Death are huge and get in the way of seeing the action, and it’s on the other end of the field, but she knows some of what happens, and they are important because that’s what keeps them in the game. Their first (or is it their second?) goal is a three-way joint venture, although Darling’s having trouble seeing the specific details behind the giant form of Buluc Chabtan. The only thing she knows for sure is that somehow Balam managed to take the ball from the Lord of War and pass it to the Captain, who then practically just hands it off to her Stand and manages to fake out Tohil, who spends longer than he’d like following her long after she doesn’t even have the ball anymore. “Outsiders-One,” Cabrakan states, with just as much enthusiasm, which is to say, none. Or is it “Outsiders-Two”?
Play #6: This was the moment that reminded her why she doesn’t like it when they force her to play sports, because it’s always like this, bullies trying to make her ‘get in on the action’ and ready to laugh at her when she doesn’t. She just freezes up and tries not to cry, because that really would be seen as a weakness and the lot of the Xibalban deities really are bullies, aren’t they. She thinks the ball’s at the other end, near the other hoop, and she’s paying attention but not that much attention, when she hears multiple voices call her name and looks up to see the atomic speed of a ball accelerating toward her right arm.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: The game starts in earnest.
Word Count: 1408
Rating: Teen
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS
So it’s easier to remember, say, the smell of grass and rot, or the way the stone of the stands looked. But the moments are unforgettable, too.
Of course, she sees everything a little more removed from the action. Thinking about it, she’s pretty sure the Captain just chose her for protecting the goal because of Whisper, and she trusted Robin to be able to do it. She doesn’t think the middle of the field usually sees this much action, but it’s probably a good thing that most of it is going on further from the weaker players. It’d probably be a really different experience if she was out near the middle, where she’s seeing less of little moments across the field and more one-on-one battles with the Lords of Death. She doesn’t ask the others about their experiences later, though, because, well, there are more important things going on, but there are bits and pieces that stick in her mind years later.
In order of memorability, and not really chronological order, she lists them as follows:
Play #1: Probably because she still feels guilty about it, even if she’s barely any good at any of this. The first goal the opposite team makes. It turns out that a dropped ball is still considered ‘live’, or whatever. There’s no interruption by their so-called wonderful referee, Cabrakan, to move the ball to an official spot, or whatever. Actually, she’s not unconvinced that he might’ve just fallen asleep. But no one, not even Balam, is protesting this, so apparently it’s normal? Apparently there’s not even anything against the same team that dropped the ball continuing to use it, although with a roll of the eyes Tohil steps aside and out of the way—lucky for him, too, or Darling’s pretty sure Buluc Chabtan would probably have kicked him and the ball, even if he was still kind of attached. From a glimpse at the Captain’s expression, it’s a bigger deal than it is to Darling, who only vaguely knows that’s a thing from class. Though generally it’s not like they bothered explaining much of anything to her, since she was generally considered a team handicap anyway.
And then the Lord of War throws it to Camazotz, which of course they’ve lost track of. They really have to watch out for the flying ones. He does a good job passing the ball between his legs and his wings for a few seconds, and Whisper flies as fast as he can but he’s on the wrong side of the ball and basically just manages to catch it, rather than stop it.
It doesn’t matter what direction the ball goes through the stone goal circle on the wall, apparently, because Cabrakan announces without opening his eye that’s not swollen shut, “Xibalba-One.” He’d have trouble sounding less enthusiastic, Darling suspects.
“Looks like that’s actually a tactic,” Mr. Brown tells her quietly, hand on her shoulder. How he’s actually able to talk to her and actually be heard over the rowdy audience probably has to do with the mysteries of Hamon. “If you put it in going that way, the other side has to turn around to go the right direction. We’ll have to keep an eye out for that next time.” He’s so sure they’ll do better.
She does manage successfully to pass, although she quickly loses track of who has the ball.
Play #2: The moment that she decides the Lords of Death are probably weirder than their group, which—she loves them all dearly, but that is quite an accomplishment. She thinks the next incident comes after, as retaliation, but she’s not sure. She does remember Lord Akan yelling at the Queen of the Night hanging out around the middle, though. (Mostly she’s just...dashing around and tripping the other Lords of Death, which looks infuriating, but apparently isn’t against the rules, either.) “I didn’t say you could use your powers, Awilix. Let Camazotz speak!”
She shrugs, like she’s not taking this seriously, either. “You didn’t say I couldn’t, and how could you tell? He barely talks anyway!”
The action actually stops. Everyone looks at the bat-god, who...basically looks the same. Maybe a little angrier than normal, but that’s not saying much.
Lord Kisin taps his foot. “Please?”
Camazotz doesn’t actually say anything after that point, but the Lords look content, and the game just starts again.
Play #3: She’d been arrogant, or, well, no, more like naïve enough at the time to think this meant she was getting a handle on the game. She wasn’t, but the others were too polite to correct the impression. There’s the moment Whisper first manages to block a goal, and Buluc Chabtan looks almost as proud as Mr. Brown, which is just kind of wrong. It’s hard to tell if they can actually see the Stands. They can see Whisper, of course, because everyone can, but they act more like they can sense rather than see Panzermensch. They’re so surprised Whisper almost drops the ball in place, only they fumble a throw instead.
Play #4: For the life of her, Darling can’t actually remember the context. She wants to, desperately, because it’s such an interesting image, but she can’t conjure up anything around it. And during one particularly memorable part, Mr. Brown manages to catch the ball using just his elbow and…keep it there. With the crackle and glow, it’s probable that he’s using the Ripple like a particularly strong static electricity to just...keep it there. Everyone had reacted with surprise, and she vaguely remembers one of the Lords of Death, but not which one, asking Cabrakan if that was against the rules or something. She’s not sure if her imagination is rewriting her memories and if he’d just not responded or if he’d actually, as she remembers, snored in response, but either way the game had continued.
Piece #1: This one isn’t really so much of a piece as much of a lack of one, and she can’t describe it in terms of a single play, either. A hole in the puzzle, where you’ve nearly completed it and then spend the next hour trying to work out where the last piece got to. It’s more of an impression of what should be there than anything. Balam, it turns out, isn’t one to abuse his powers. That, or he’s not just doing this to amuse himself and is actually taking it seriously. He doesn’t have any stand-out moments, but he is always right where he needs to be, and he’s so quietly understated about his presence that a lot of the Lords of Death seem to be overlooking him, which, well. Their mistake, really.
Play #5: She knows less of the details of their goals than the ones on her end, mostly because, well, it’s chaotic, some of the Lords of Death are huge and get in the way of seeing the action, and it’s on the other end of the field, but she knows some of what happens, and they are important because that’s what keeps them in the game. Their first (or is it their second?) goal is a three-way joint venture, although Darling’s having trouble seeing the specific details behind the giant form of Buluc Chabtan. The only thing she knows for sure is that somehow Balam managed to take the ball from the Lord of War and pass it to the Captain, who then practically just hands it off to her Stand and manages to fake out Tohil, who spends longer than he’d like following her long after she doesn’t even have the ball anymore. “Outsiders-One,” Cabrakan states, with just as much enthusiasm, which is to say, none. Or is it “Outsiders-Two”?
Play #6: This was the moment that reminded her why she doesn’t like it when they force her to play sports, because it’s always like this, bullies trying to make her ‘get in on the action’ and ready to laugh at her when she doesn’t. She just freezes up and tries not to cry, because that really would be seen as a weakness and the lot of the Xibalban deities really are bullies, aren’t they. She thinks the ball’s at the other end, near the other hoop, and she’s paying attention but not that much attention, when she hears multiple voices call her name and looks up to see the atomic speed of a ball accelerating toward her right arm.
