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madimpossibledreamerMain Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: The shortcut gets them to Wesley, but is it in time?
Word Count: 1161
Rating: Teen
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS
Interestingly, though, for a city of death, they pass decayed gardens. Huge ones, bigger than could actually fit underneath the pyramid if they were even there anymore. It truly had been a city, once. Broken stone monuments litter the area whenever it opens up a little, smashed to pieces, rubbed away by time, and a few even look vandalized with crude things carved into them, not that any of them get a good look. Someone definitely had a grudge, probably the same someones that had mocked all the former Lords of Death. Somewhere behind them (Josephine’s in front, because hello, that’s where all the action is) Giles has fully given up all attempts at stealth and has begun to speculate about everything. The culprits were probably the Hero Twins, and yeah, sure, the Lords of Death probably had about the same idea of vengeance and were probably assholes to boot and also probably did unforgivable things, but still. Again, destruction on this scale is a little too much.
Everything smells damp, rusty, forgotten, with dust and mold everywhere. The cold of the original underground pyramid structure was more just the usual effect of underground stone structures, while here, it’s more like...a swim in the sea, maybe, or a lake, or river, something like that. Where it doesn’t feel cold, just a little cool, maybe even a little warm in places, but if you spend too long there, you realize your senses are actually fooling you because you’re actually freezing when you get out.
Occasionally she’ll see other inhabitants, most of which look more like the inhabitants of We’ll Be Waiting than human, scurry around a corner, hiding from their sight like being perceived is death. A few want to pick a fight, but one glance from their tour guide has them running instead. An uncomfortable thought occurs to Josie—the empty chair, and the way Balam knows this place, and the way these skittish residents treat their guide. Could it be that their guide is the one who escaped from that empty chair at the table? Of course, there’s no way to verify this and she could be on the wrong track entirely; Josephine isn’t familiar with mythology or folklore from this part of the world, and she’s hardly going to ask Giles in front of the possible deity in question.
The transition back to the stone corridors is hardly subtle. They’re both stone, of course. But one has the remains of a city however decayed, and the other has occasional rooms to either side that are barely the size of Uncle Okuyasu’s apartment. There’s also the sound of splashing. For whatever reason, a thin film of water covers a small stretch of corridor, but only that stretch, and she feels the shift back to the normal world as they cross it, kind of like one of B3’s doorways, which means this is probably some sort of threshold and might be symbolic in some way. Also, the corpses are back—the actual dead ones, not the living ones, and the temperature is back to the expected.
Probably the most direct of signals, though, is the way the pads of their guide slow and come to a stop when the slope of the tunnel suddenly increases.
“What’s wrong?” Papa, as always, is sympathetic and kind, even to their sketchy maybe-deity acquaintance. Or maybe it’s more like ‘because’. The supernatural origins probably put him off a little, but he could be sympathetic to the strangest people at times. Then again, he’d been a police officer for a long time, as long as she could remember, anyway, and while she’d seen enough to know they weren’t always the best of people, Papa had been trying to prove that wrong, single-handedly if he had to.
The panther does another one of his panthery bows in their general direction. “I have done as I promised. I promised you safe passage, and that you have received. I could attempt to aid you in the fight to come, but I have already done quite enough for you; you are better equipped to deal with this threat than I. Or so your reputations proclaim.”
And then, without another word, he lopes off back the way they came, disappearing in a shimmery haze—aha, so that was a boundary between worlds. She’s still got it.
They can’t see much of this, the deepest room in the pyramid, ahead, just the flicker of torches and the reflection of what might be a vast pool of blood on the floor. Even Josie knows not to just rush in, though.
All their previous chatter disappears, and even Giles silences his speculations. The silence itself chills the air. For a moment, anyway, and then the sound of something metal cutting into flesh pierces the air, and then, well.
They were probably going to do some sort of complicated strategy, as Cousin Jotaro and Cugino Giorno and anyone else who could understand used hand signals to formulate some kind of foolproof plan. That idea gets thrown out of the window (a very metaphorical one, as there clearly aren’t any windows down here). Cousin Jotaro disappears between one blink and the next, clearly having used Star Platinum: The World, and it all dissolves into chaos from there. Usually, that’s where Josie thrives, but this time she doesn’t actually quite feel up to the task. Time progresses in a series of vague snippets of video, almost.
It’s hard to tell who ran in first, besides Cousin Jotaro. Willow was among the first. The woman’s scream of her son’s old name etches itself into Josie’s synapses, and Papa runs in shortly after, probably seeking to use Crazy Diamond to fix whatever situation’s going on in there.
It’s good, she thinks. At least someone had the energy to run, so he wouldn’t be alone. At least someone had the breath to scream, to express their pain and sorrow. At least someone’s words hadn’t deserted them in this hour of need.
A touch at her elbow startles her out of her paralysis—Cugino Giorno, eyes concerned, furiously still. She nods once, thankful, takes a deep breath, and runs into the room, calling out Bye Bye Beautiful silently.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: The shortcut gets them to Wesley, but is it in time?
Word Count: 1161
Rating: Teen
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS
It becomes even more obvious that they truly are going through the back ways. Josie had never stopped to consider how ancient traps and the like are actually kept in working order. Most of them probably weren’t. If she were an evil mastermind hiding in her evil fortress, she’d still have wanted to do last-minute repairs on all the old traps, but it hadn’t occurred to her before that maybe the movies weren’t accurate (gasp!) and time just...devoured everything. Even ancient booby traps. There’s a poisoned crossbow or something that tries to fire, but it just doesn’t quite manage it. It kind of looks sad and abandoned, like a dog that tries to keep protecting its owners’ house years after the owner died.
Interestingly, though, for a city of death, they pass decayed gardens. Huge ones, bigger than could actually fit underneath the pyramid if they were even there anymore. It truly had been a city, once. Broken stone monuments litter the area whenever it opens up a little, smashed to pieces, rubbed away by time, and a few even look vandalized with crude things carved into them, not that any of them get a good look. Someone definitely had a grudge, probably the same someones that had mocked all the former Lords of Death. Somewhere behind them (Josephine’s in front, because hello, that’s where all the action is) Giles has fully given up all attempts at stealth and has begun to speculate about everything. The culprits were probably the Hero Twins, and yeah, sure, the Lords of Death probably had about the same idea of vengeance and were probably assholes to boot and also probably did unforgivable things, but still. Again, destruction on this scale is a little too much.
Everything smells damp, rusty, forgotten, with dust and mold everywhere. The cold of the original underground pyramid structure was more just the usual effect of underground stone structures, while here, it’s more like...a swim in the sea, maybe, or a lake, or river, something like that. Where it doesn’t feel cold, just a little cool, maybe even a little warm in places, but if you spend too long there, you realize your senses are actually fooling you because you’re actually freezing when you get out.
Occasionally she’ll see other inhabitants, most of which look more like the inhabitants of We’ll Be Waiting than human, scurry around a corner, hiding from their sight like being perceived is death. A few want to pick a fight, but one glance from their tour guide has them running instead. An uncomfortable thought occurs to Josie—the empty chair, and the way Balam knows this place, and the way these skittish residents treat their guide. Could it be that their guide is the one who escaped from that empty chair at the table? Of course, there’s no way to verify this and she could be on the wrong track entirely; Josephine isn’t familiar with mythology or folklore from this part of the world, and she’s hardly going to ask Giles in front of the possible deity in question.
The transition back to the stone corridors is hardly subtle. They’re both stone, of course. But one has the remains of a city however decayed, and the other has occasional rooms to either side that are barely the size of Uncle Okuyasu’s apartment. There’s also the sound of splashing. For whatever reason, a thin film of water covers a small stretch of corridor, but only that stretch, and she feels the shift back to the normal world as they cross it, kind of like one of B3’s doorways, which means this is probably some sort of threshold and might be symbolic in some way. Also, the corpses are back—the actual dead ones, not the living ones, and the temperature is back to the expected.
Probably the most direct of signals, though, is the way the pads of their guide slow and come to a stop when the slope of the tunnel suddenly increases.
“What’s wrong?” Papa, as always, is sympathetic and kind, even to their sketchy maybe-deity acquaintance. Or maybe it’s more like ‘because’. The supernatural origins probably put him off a little, but he could be sympathetic to the strangest people at times. Then again, he’d been a police officer for a long time, as long as she could remember, anyway, and while she’d seen enough to know they weren’t always the best of people, Papa had been trying to prove that wrong, single-handedly if he had to.
The panther does another one of his panthery bows in their general direction. “I have done as I promised. I promised you safe passage, and that you have received. I could attempt to aid you in the fight to come, but I have already done quite enough for you; you are better equipped to deal with this threat than I. Or so your reputations proclaim.”
And then, without another word, he lopes off back the way they came, disappearing in a shimmery haze—aha, so that was a boundary between worlds. She’s still got it.
They can’t see much of this, the deepest room in the pyramid, ahead, just the flicker of torches and the reflection of what might be a vast pool of blood on the floor. Even Josie knows not to just rush in, though.
All their previous chatter disappears, and even Giles silences his speculations. The silence itself chills the air. For a moment, anyway, and then the sound of something metal cutting into flesh pierces the air, and then, well.
They were probably going to do some sort of complicated strategy, as Cousin Jotaro and Cugino Giorno and anyone else who could understand used hand signals to formulate some kind of foolproof plan. That idea gets thrown out of the window (a very metaphorical one, as there clearly aren’t any windows down here). Cousin Jotaro disappears between one blink and the next, clearly having used Star Platinum: The World, and it all dissolves into chaos from there. Usually, that’s where Josie thrives, but this time she doesn’t actually quite feel up to the task. Time progresses in a series of vague snippets of video, almost.
It’s hard to tell who ran in first, besides Cousin Jotaro. Willow was among the first. The woman’s scream of her son’s old name etches itself into Josie’s synapses, and Papa runs in shortly after, probably seeking to use Crazy Diamond to fix whatever situation’s going on in there.
It’s good, she thinks. At least someone had the energy to run, so he wouldn’t be alone. At least someone had the breath to scream, to express their pain and sorrow. At least someone’s words hadn’t deserted them in this hour of need.
A touch at her elbow startles her out of her paralysis—Cugino Giorno, eyes concerned, furiously still. She nods once, thankful, takes a deep breath, and runs into the room, calling out Bye Bye Beautiful silently.
