madimpossibledreamer

Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: Giles is coordinating what he can.
Word Count: 1036
Rating: Teen
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS

         If Ethan were here, he’d probably have some sort of smart remark about Rupert being a coward, and he’s not altogether incorrect. He’d probably follow that up with a sneer about the Watchers, which would not be untrue, either. They have attempted to improve the culture, but it’s fighting an uphill battle against millennia of tradition, and despite his own rebellion Rupert’s own youth had a wealth of Watcher training against which he rebelled. To be contrarian, you need a consensus to rail against, and tradition, it feels, had been ingrained in his very soul. There is good reason, he suspects, that the name ‘Watchers’ had been chosen to begin with, rather than a more active title that implied any action or involvement on their part. No matter how much he hated the conversation with Josephine, she’d had her own points as well. He’s run from one disaster during his training to another when summoning demons, to name a few instances in a larger pattern, only choosing to take a stand on a few occasions. He hadn’t even bothered to explain his own past to his wards-of-a-sort for fear of judgment. Not his history catching up with them, though that’s certainly how he’d justified his actions to himself at the time. And he’d even had proof it didn’t work. No matter his own discretion, Ethan’s schemes had on multiple occasions cropped up to haunt them all.
        He had fought his instincts on multiple occasions—to confront Willow when she had lost her way, for example. Even at the time, however, he had also convinced himself that they were all better off without him and that he should leave them and head to England without a warning or even a simple goodbye. He had been convinced of his own authority and that he must maintain that authority at the cost of honest conversations, sharing his own vulnerabilities, or any hint that he had weaknesses, though it’s not as if that did anything to instill any sense of control or respect for American teenagers. At least he’d dealt with it better than Wesley had, something in which he can always take pride.
        And one could argue his approach even now was cowardice, hiding away while others are doing the legwork of checking out leads and putting themselves in potential harm’s way of coming to the attention of Rush. You could argue that, and have at least a little supporting evidence, but overall you would be incorrect.
        You could argue the point, but you would be incorrect. In Ethan’s case, Rupert would suspect it would have something to do with the idea that the more boring an action is, the more cowardly and less useful it is. Scouring hundreds of books on the off-chance he could encounter a single off-handed one-sentence remark is hardly a hardship. It’s always been the most enjoyable part of his duties, even if it requires a lot of work. However, it’s the rest of the work in between that, while not actively involved, could very easily come to the attention of the enemy if he is in any way more qualified with newfangled inventions and magic than Giles is. They’ve had a number of people attempt to tamper-proof phones and the like, and he’s now mobilizing every surviving Watcher and Slayer and Witch in a way they haven’t before, not to mention coordinating efforts with four other groups (despite his distaste for working with a mafia with magical powers of some description, Passione is proving to be invaluable and somehow a sight better than working directly with Wolfram & Hart, even perhaps serving as some kind of reminder that the firm is merely being suffered as allies, not welcomed as friends, the Speedwagon Foundation is proving to be invaluable, and they really should have been listening to the Devon Coven and their warnings before now).
        He hates the admission of guilt, that they had in fact failed, that even after their precautions and reorganization taken solely to prevent this kind of thing from occurring, it had not been enough to prevent hundreds of deaths. But he is, amid copious amounts of tea, forcing himself to do so, carefully considering how much knowledge each recipient should know. Not that he believes keeping secrets is useful at this point. It’s what got them in this mess, really, lack of trust and keeping secrets, assuming he knows what’s best, all because Willow had the same belief. He’s trying a new approach, getting second opinions, reevaluating his preconceived notions and beliefs, even the idea that Ripper should stay in the shadows and never make a repeat appearance. If necessary, he’ll adopt some of those earlier approaches as well, if with a new twist. He’s not the same man he was when he was in his early twenties. More so because he’s deeply familiar with many of the current Slayers and Watchers and Witches, knows that several of them are taking the deaths of Kuar and the rest extremely personally and are itching for revenge. If too much information is divulged to certain of them, it’s guaranteed that there will be more deaths than he suspects they’d already have otherwise; it’s not as if attempting to stop any of those Buffy had termed ‘Big Bads’ is an activity without risk. They’d simply been too confident in this period of fragile, illusionary peace, believed that now that they’d changed everything that they were, in fact, secure.
        Admitting the truth, working to secure what they have while attempting, extremely cautiously, to move against their new foe is, after all, what they have always stood for. What the old Council, at least, paid lip service toward, and the new one tried to actually live up to the ideal. Whether or not they actually succeed is highly important, given the dangers Rush represents, but it’s also almost beside the point. They can’t afford mistakes, but the struggle in of itself is rather a noble one, and it deserves nothing less than his best efforts—and since his greatest contribution is not exactly, in most cases, in the field, then as a result he needs to contribute what he can. No more, no less.