Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Shadowed Suspicion Chapter 372

[madimpossibledreamer]

Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: Giorno and the others investigate the first findings in the corridor to Rush's lab.
Word Count: 1313
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS

         Buffy’s tension fades. Nothing’s waiting inside to ambush anybody, though she realizes that’s a statement that’s pretty sure of itself and simultaneously quite possibly wrong. Because it’s quite possibly he or someone like him would be sitting at the bottom, beneath the pond scum. It’s not like he has to breathe (that’s one of the few things that any of the sightings are pretty sure about), so he could be sitting at the bottom of this barrel underneath the water, but if he is he’s not even moving. Which, sure, he’s patient, but if an ambush was part of his plan, he probably would have been springing it already. Indecisive he sure isn’t. The setup for the attack on Wolfram & Hart probably took a while, but he was probably working on it the entire time.
         “What are you doing?” Antonio asks nervously, as Giorno shrugs out of his outer jacket. At least he’s not panicking or having hysterics at this point. So he’s naturally the nervous kind of guy, but not useless. It’s good to keep that in mind; the last time she’d seen something along those lines, she reminds herself, was with Severin, who’d only been pretending at the time to lure her into a state of false security. Not that she thinks their pilot is double crossing them, but it’s also a problem to keep underestimating people like this.
         “It would be good to know more about this algae,” he points out, utterly unfazed. Interesting that he’d pinpointed what type of greenish scum stuff is floating at the top, but not unexpected. He is kind of a biology nerd. At nods from Daniela and Buffy, he continues, dipping his sleeve into the sludge, but even that isn’t too dramatic (apart from the breath that everybody holds as he does so). The sleeve doesn’t hiss or dissolve, and when he pulls it back out, it doesn’t surge after or attempt to engulf any of them like a horrible tentacle or anything.
         He summons his Stand after laying the jacket carefully on the floor, putting a hand directly over the sleeve, so close it’s definitely making Antonio nervous, and concentrates carefully, thinking. Sensing. “I am not Signor Kujo,” he announces after a brief while (like, duh, that’s kind of obvious actually?), “...though I believe even when it comes to marine biology, algae are not his area of expertise.” (Oh. Right. Not that it had come up with Jotaro much, given that he’s very much like Oz in how much he talks.) “However, I believe this to be some version of diatom or dinoflagellate, given the precise color of green and the lack of longer strands that suggest a multi-celled organism. You’re probably more familiar with them by the name of the phenomenon they generate: the red tides, though contrary to the name they are not always red in color,” he states offhandedly, glancing at Buffy, and yep.
         Okay, she mostly only remembered it because she wasn’t allowed to swim while it was there in L.A. and that really ruined a good part of her summer, after which she was mostly too busy for more than the occasional beach visit, despite Sunnydale’s actual beach. (Kinda pathetic beach, but hey, it still could be called one.) “That’s dangerous to touch, right?”
         “Yes, I probably shouldn’t put this back on,” he admits, eyeing it with distaste and what might be a little regret. “The toxin dinoflagellates make, saxitoxin, is only deadly if ingested, but could still make us sick—we should probably close this back up, though I am very curious as to what Rush uses to contain it so thoroughly. Not that it gets airborne. It’s actually deadly enough that it’s been declared a chemical weapon by the Chemical Weapons Convention, and there is no cure. It often ends up in shellfish.” She is also going to ignore why he might know that—yes, okay, a lot of it is just his interest in the variety of life, but she’s going to hope it’s about him researching potential threats to his own safety, rather than ways to remove his rivals. She hasn’t heard about mafia members getting poisoned at seafood restaurants (though, huh, does Italy have restaurants that specialize in seafood, rather than just having, say, fish as one of their dishes) but it’s not like she’s read about that a lot. “Diatoms are similar, also producing a neurotoxin, though domoic acid is less deadly. Cyanobacteria are also potentially present, and have their own toxins, though, again, most also require ingestion and are not contact-toxins. Both toxins from there end up poisoning many animals up the food chain, including the birds that later inspired Alfred Hitchcock. Diatoms are, however, prettier under a microscope. They make their cell wall out of silica, so while not a silicon-based lifeform, they appear crystalline. Some diatoms even form a symbiotic relationship with dinoflagellates—and, of course, that is assuming it is just one singular living component, when in the ocean and possibly here these ‘Harmful Algal Blooms’, as they are called, are composed those three types of organisms.” The monkeys inch away from the barrel, chattering to each other with wide eyes. She...really has to wonder how much more they understand than your average monkey.
         “Rush is just the kind of guy to like to study neurotoxins in his spare time, huh.” Not airborne, she reminds herself. At least she’d been concerned and didn’t let anything splash herself.
         Giorno nods, taking a step back before something occurs to him that has him crouching down to examine the barrel again. “Or hepatotoxins or dermatoxins, yes—only to cause irritation, mind you, rather than death or permanent damage. If it’s meant to merely alarm without leaving behind evidence, it’s entirely possible he is growing one of the harmless species. However, under the circumstances...we probably should assume danger.”
         “Can’t you order one of your animals to go in and test it?” Antonio suggests, shrinking at the withering look in response.
         “I’d rather test it on Capperi, or perhaps Ricotta, but as neither happens to be present…” The others laugh, like he’s making a joke. Buffy’s pretty sure that’s not the case. He’s utterly serious that he’s at least thinking about it, even if he might discard it as a bad idea at some point. He straightens up again. “I don’t think he has booby-trapped these to release at a lever or other impetus, which is a relief, though we shouldn’t let up our guard.”
         “You mean, he’s not the type to have a castle with the little windows to fire arrows and flaming rocks and drawbridges and a moat with alligators?” Buffy teases, and Giorno smiles a little, shaking his head.
         Daniela interrupts, blunt as ever. “Why can’t I feel them like other life?”
         “I’m having troubles sensing them with Gold Experience as well. It is more similar to the dragon known as Death than any other type of life I have encountered. Perhaps it’s a unique characteristic of the species, or perhaps it’s engineered in some way.” He shrugs slightly, still elegant. “I would suspect that this is the reason why he is farming them and anything else might be a bonus, though cannot be certain.”
         “If it’s that important, then maybe that’s the reason why they’re out here, too. He could just stop by to grab a jar or whatever anytime he’s here,” Buffy guesses. “If it’s an anti-Ripple thing, it’d make sense if he was a Pillar Man.”
         “He definitely knows architecture, too, unless he hired somebody else to do it, and I would think he wouldn’t want to involve anybody else. Before coming down here, I wouldn’t have thought you could have a ‘basement’ structure in the Amazon without magic.” Ivete takes a deep breath and then starts leading them down the path again, as Giorno stretches.