madimpossibledreamer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
madimpossibledreamer) wrote2023-12-29 04:10 pm
madimpossibledreamer) wrote2023-12-29 04:10 pm
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Shadowed Suspicion Chapter 306
Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: Josie isn't really dealing.
Word Count: 1139
Rating: Teen
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS
She’d hesitated. Hesitated. She’d had a smug Pillar Man right in front of her and hadn’t been in the right mindset to smack him in his offensive smug face until it was almost too late. It’d been pretty satisfying to behead him and infuse him with the kind of hamon that means he’s not coming back in anything other than an urn.
It’d be easy to look at that and think she’s lost her edge. That while her papa might have brought her back physically, she’d still lost something along the way. Because she’s not the kind of woman who just stands there and cries. She gets even. And it’s even worse, here and now, because she couldn’t even muster the tears to cry.
Nobody had seemed to judge her. She’s pretty sure that makes it worse. Papa even hands her a Moringa Caramel he had to have been carrying with him since he got on the plane to get to the Speedwagon Foundation guy who could follow after her in the first place, which is really dorky and sweet, but it fits the thoughtful goofball she’s always known him to be. It distracts her from her pain, a little, keeps her a little more grounded and present, which honestly was probably the point.
Cugino Giorno’s adding to his menagerie of unfairly awesome creatures, because he looks like he’s considering keeping at least a few of the blood snakes. She’s mad at Willow, because she’d actually managed to cry. At least Buffy seems to be in the same boat, dry-eyed and with a ‘I want to set something on fire’ face, but she also hadn’t been frozen and useless, throwing herself into the fight, while Josephine had been over here rebooting her brain like they weren’t all about to die if they didn’t give their all. Giles hadn’t been lying; he did actually look upset and guilty and he’d actually managed to win the day and that’s just unforgivable, too. Papa...she’s never been mad at Papa, no matter how hard she tried, no matter how much she’d wanted to be, when they lost Kaasan. At least Uncle Okuyasu—well, he hadn’t exactly been paralyzed, but he mostly just had to sit on the sidelines, stumped as to how to use The Hand effectively given how many of them were there in a circle around the guy, though he’d come in handy when it came to rushing back down the corridors to try to get back in time. And Cousin Jotaro—more than anything, she’s mad at Cousin Jotaro and Uncle Kakyoin, and she’d almost blame Cousin Shizuka, too, except Shizuka-chan is still a little bit of a mouse who can’t say no, so she can’t manage that, either.
But they’d known. They’d known Johan wasn’t dead, wasn’t that body lying on the slab. Wasn’t currently missing his heart, with the ribcage cracked open and all sorts of things that might be more fascinating to look at if that wasn’t her son she hasn’t even quite met as herself lifeless, splayed open in front of her. They’d known and they hadn’t said.
“Didn’t want to give you false hope until we knew,” Cousin Jotaro states gruffly as he wraps up his call, which is fair enough. She’s not sure how her heart’s going to do. Normally, she loves rollercoasters, but at this point she’s had quite enough.
It’s not. She knows it’s not. It can’t be a sure thing, not with what little she’d overheard. She’d bluffed, all bravado, to his friends, sharing how Joestars were strong, how she wasn’t scared for him, not with the history. But she’ll grasp it with both hands to pull herself out of this pit of endless despair, and she knows hamon, even though she’s wishing she’d hassled Great-Grandpa to actually teach her with what little he still remembered, because it’d be great to actually have certainty about her chances at healing. And there’s Papa, and Giorno, and while she’s pretty sure they’ve both had more than enough suffering for several lifetimes, if it saves his life she’d absolutely let Giorno torture him in the name of keeping him breathing for another day.
She wants to be angry at the group that joins them, afraid of being too late, but they genuinely care, so the only thing she could possibly get angry at the teenager and military lady and the fellow Ripple Warrior with a bow for is actually getting to know her son better than her, which is patently ridiculous, and their grief and hope are genuine, and maybe it’s for the best that the kid didn’t actually have to see that, because it’s etched into Josie’s mind and she’s supposedly an adult who can handle this. If she ever meets the person who decided that, that being a certain age makes one magically capable of dealing with things no one should have to she’s going to give them a piece of her mind. Hopefully, there will be time for introductions later. Hopefully, too, all their hopes will be realized.
The cat-lady is appropriately apologetic, even though she hadn’t actually met Johan. It’s almost certainly not genuine, but she’s making the effort. The giant doesn’t, really, and he actually seems weirdly happy about her slugging him, but she’s not sparing too much brain power for that, not when there’s more important things going on.
She doesn’t have to be a psychologist to know she’s projecting, that her self-hatred at being unable to do even this for her own kid is eating her alive, this vast wellspring that’s overflowing and swamping anyone and everything in reach. It’s tempting to just let it continue, to go with the flow, to pretend that it’s valid, even a little. But that’d just be taking the easy way out, and she’s not the type of bird to do that, either.
To her credit, the military lady swaps out immediately for Cousin Shizuka the instant they arrive. She’d clearly been getting tired and her rhythm ended up off, but she also wasn’t about to stop, which Josie appreciates. Under Uncle Kakyoin’s instruction, she and the Sendo Warrior add in some healing Ripple, and, thankfully, he’s much better at it than she is. Johan’s still breathing, his heart’s still beating, and she’s surrounded by a bunch of people who are as invested as she is (minus the Mayan god, but she’s trying to ignore his existence for the time being), and there’s still hope, so she is absolutely going to work her butt off to try to achieve a miracle.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: Josie isn't really dealing.
Word Count: 1139
Rating: Teen
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS
Higashikata Josephine is a woman of action. She doesn’t stand on the sidelines, she doesn’t think about her actions too much, she doesn’t like to do too much of navel-gazing, and so she’s really not ready for any of this.
She’d hesitated. Hesitated. She’d had a smug Pillar Man right in front of her and hadn’t been in the right mindset to smack him in his offensive smug face until it was almost too late. It’d been pretty satisfying to behead him and infuse him with the kind of hamon that means he’s not coming back in anything other than an urn.
It’d be easy to look at that and think she’s lost her edge. That while her papa might have brought her back physically, she’d still lost something along the way. Because she’s not the kind of woman who just stands there and cries. She gets even. And it’s even worse, here and now, because she couldn’t even muster the tears to cry.
Nobody had seemed to judge her. She’s pretty sure that makes it worse. Papa even hands her a Moringa Caramel he had to have been carrying with him since he got on the plane to get to the Speedwagon Foundation guy who could follow after her in the first place, which is really dorky and sweet, but it fits the thoughtful goofball she’s always known him to be. It distracts her from her pain, a little, keeps her a little more grounded and present, which honestly was probably the point.
Cugino Giorno’s adding to his menagerie of unfairly awesome creatures, because he looks like he’s considering keeping at least a few of the blood snakes. She’s mad at Willow, because she’d actually managed to cry. At least Buffy seems to be in the same boat, dry-eyed and with a ‘I want to set something on fire’ face, but she also hadn’t been frozen and useless, throwing herself into the fight, while Josephine had been over here rebooting her brain like they weren’t all about to die if they didn’t give their all. Giles hadn’t been lying; he did actually look upset and guilty and he’d actually managed to win the day and that’s just unforgivable, too. Papa...she’s never been mad at Papa, no matter how hard she tried, no matter how much she’d wanted to be, when they lost Kaasan. At least Uncle Okuyasu—well, he hadn’t exactly been paralyzed, but he mostly just had to sit on the sidelines, stumped as to how to use The Hand effectively given how many of them were there in a circle around the guy, though he’d come in handy when it came to rushing back down the corridors to try to get back in time. And Cousin Jotaro—more than anything, she’s mad at Cousin Jotaro and Uncle Kakyoin, and she’d almost blame Cousin Shizuka, too, except Shizuka-chan is still a little bit of a mouse who can’t say no, so she can’t manage that, either.
But they’d known. They’d known Johan wasn’t dead, wasn’t that body lying on the slab. Wasn’t currently missing his heart, with the ribcage cracked open and all sorts of things that might be more fascinating to look at if that wasn’t her son she hasn’t even quite met as herself lifeless, splayed open in front of her. They’d known and they hadn’t said.
“Didn’t want to give you false hope until we knew,” Cousin Jotaro states gruffly as he wraps up his call, which is fair enough. She’s not sure how her heart’s going to do. Normally, she loves rollercoasters, but at this point she’s had quite enough.
It’s not. She knows it’s not. It can’t be a sure thing, not with what little she’d overheard. She’d bluffed, all bravado, to his friends, sharing how Joestars were strong, how she wasn’t scared for him, not with the history. But she’ll grasp it with both hands to pull herself out of this pit of endless despair, and she knows hamon, even though she’s wishing she’d hassled Great-Grandpa to actually teach her with what little he still remembered, because it’d be great to actually have certainty about her chances at healing. And there’s Papa, and Giorno, and while she’s pretty sure they’ve both had more than enough suffering for several lifetimes, if it saves his life she’d absolutely let Giorno torture him in the name of keeping him breathing for another day.
She wants to be angry at the group that joins them, afraid of being too late, but they genuinely care, so the only thing she could possibly get angry at the teenager and military lady and the fellow Ripple Warrior with a bow for is actually getting to know her son better than her, which is patently ridiculous, and their grief and hope are genuine, and maybe it’s for the best that the kid didn’t actually have to see that, because it’s etched into Josie’s mind and she’s supposedly an adult who can handle this. If she ever meets the person who decided that, that being a certain age makes one magically capable of dealing with things no one should have to she’s going to give them a piece of her mind. Hopefully, there will be time for introductions later. Hopefully, too, all their hopes will be realized.
The cat-lady is appropriately apologetic, even though she hadn’t actually met Johan. It’s almost certainly not genuine, but she’s making the effort. The giant doesn’t, really, and he actually seems weirdly happy about her slugging him, but she’s not sparing too much brain power for that, not when there’s more important things going on.
She doesn’t have to be a psychologist to know she’s projecting, that her self-hatred at being unable to do even this for her own kid is eating her alive, this vast wellspring that’s overflowing and swamping anyone and everything in reach. It’s tempting to just let it continue, to go with the flow, to pretend that it’s valid, even a little. But that’d just be taking the easy way out, and she’s not the type of bird to do that, either.
To her credit, the military lady swaps out immediately for Cousin Shizuka the instant they arrive. She’d clearly been getting tired and her rhythm ended up off, but she also wasn’t about to stop, which Josie appreciates. Under Uncle Kakyoin’s instruction, she and the Sendo Warrior add in some healing Ripple, and, thankfully, he’s much better at it than she is. Johan’s still breathing, his heart’s still beating, and she’s surrounded by a bunch of people who are as invested as she is (minus the Mayan god, but she’s trying to ignore his existence for the time being), and there’s still hope, so she is absolutely going to work her butt off to try to achieve a miracle.