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madimpossibledreamerMain Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: The investigation into the bookstore begins.
Word Count: 1167
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS
Tables and chairs sit haphazardly next to the fence, and if they weren’t the same matching metal, Xander would almost think that someone just abandoned them here. The gate isn’t even fully open, inviting, but instead is almost shut. The building in front, some sort of small insurance office, doesn’t even have any extra small sign suggesting anything is back here. Which could mean one of a couple of things: it’s a front for some other, shadier business, the owner is retired and doesn’t actually need any money, it’s got a small, loyal customer base through word of mouth, or they’re one of the few who actually does most of their business online. If the dealer has enough rare books, that’s not even out of the question; that can be pretty good in terms of pay. Or at least, that’s what listening in on Giles complaining about trying to negotiate with rare bookstores and booksellers suggests.
Kakyoin glances at Jotaro, but seems a little reassured since Jotaro is looking carefully at his notes. Jotaro is frowning, maybe a touch more than usual. It doesn’t seem to be a worry about whether they’re at the right place, unlike his friend. Johan gets the feeling that it’s probably a combination of two things: this is absolutely a terrible spot to be ambushed, and also how the Speedwagon Foundation or the International Slayers’ and Watchers’ Council managed to find the place given how tucked away it is could be a problem. Even a supposed customer just wandering in from the street could set off alarm bells, like Jotaro’s visit to a certain store to ask about a button. Hell, even asking locals about the store could have alerted someone to the fact that they’re snooping around, and given that a swarm of murder eyeballs was what happened to Jotaro the last time he’d been caught doing that, to say nothing attempted explosions and further eyeballs in Buffy and Giorno’s case.
“Josephine was supposed to meet us here,” he explains with a frown, and instantly Johan shares the worry. Like Josie ever learned how to wait for backup and not just go charging into a situation, and okay, it is weird and slightly cursed that he knows this, now, thanks to Pretender, but he can’t un-know it.
Instantly, he tries her cell phone number, but it just rings. It doesn’t say her number’s been disconnected or can’t be reached or whatever, so she’s probably not in the eldritch zone from We’ll Be Waiting. Probably. He can’t hear it, but for all he knows she turned it to silent, or something. She has a bad habit of doing that.
“I don’t know that we should wait, Jotaro,” Kakyoin suggests, clearly probably also remembering the Button Incident, and Jotaro, reluctantly, nods. He is definitely ready to pull out Star Platinum at a moment’s provocation, though.
Having to go down some narrow steps into what is essentially a basement doesn’t help the impression that this place actually doesn’t want to be found. A crudely painted sign with an arrow to the stairs labeled ‘books’ does actually indicate the presence of a bookstore for the first time since they’ve stepped back here, but it’s done by hand on an irregular sheet of metal by a complete amateur. Someone, Fitz maybe, did actually try for the wooden one above the shop in London. Opening the door lets out two things: cold air and a booming voice that tells them where the missing ‘rest of the party’ went, though Xander’s pretty sure that none of them invited Buluc Chabtan along. At least the cool air of the basement probably makes the heating bills cheap. Maybe it helps him save up for flood insurance. It rains a lot in Rhode Island, doesn’t it?
Xander’s guesses are pretty much proven right, actually, because the bookshelves are actually pretty sparse and fit the slightly cavernous, industrial feel of the place, complete with all metal furnishings, ‘wasted’ space, and slightly unsettling faux-windows that have been chosen for the lighting fixtures on the walls. A piano that looks like it’s never been touched sits in a back corner. If anything, it’s half a gaming shop. Not a traditional one, with card and board gaming tables, but it looks like more strategy games barely taking up one shelf in the back. It looks like an extremely bored Josie and Darling are playing chess in the back but neither of them are really into it or even paying attention to half the rules, given the move Josie just made with the pawn. Both of them are paying a lot more attention to Buluc Chabtan interrogating what Xander has to say is the owner (they probably don’t have more than a single employee, here) at the counter. Johan stares at him briefly, but he’s older and probably couldn’t be Rush with makeup, even if Pillar Man bodies are kind of rubber and malleable. He also looks frightened, but that Xander would only put odds on being about fifty percent real. Because, yeah, he’s scared on being cornered by a god of war Xibalban escapee, but also, he’s attempting to convince them he’s perfectly harmless, and that Xander can’t believe. Even if he doesn’t know about the full extent of it, he has been working with criminals in the past.
So as not to put him too much on the defensive right away, though, Xander wanders out to check out the shelves. Eh, mostly bibliographies and historical kind of stuff. Given the impressive hard bindings on some of these, he’s guessing they probably are the more rare, expensive kind, but he’d just find most of it boring anyway. Of course, given that Rush wanted his hands on something this guy would carry, that’s a major clue and maybe a suggestion that it’s going to get a lot more exciting topic-wise than any of them might expect, but nothing here really seems to narrow it down too much.
Of course, then he wanders close enough to hear Josie say something along the lines of, “I don’t know why you’re making so much of a fuss; I barely arrived before you did,” to Darling, at which point something feels clearly wrong.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: The investigation into the bookstore begins.
Word Count: 1167
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS
One of the clearest impressions Johan gets, the second he steps inside, is that this is definitely a contrast to Fitz’s bookstore. He wouldn’t exactly call Fitz’s bookstore cluttered or unwelcoming, but it did seem like he’d gone to lengths to find absolutely anywhere a book could potentially be held, and even getting there is different. Sure, it’d been a side street, but Fitz’s bookstore had been just off a street. Here, it’s not even that. To start with, one has to open the rickety old garden gate and walk over the cobblestones in need of repair to the back of the building. The gate and fence must have been nice once, painted black, but the paint is chipped and the metal underneath has started to rust.
Tables and chairs sit haphazardly next to the fence, and if they weren’t the same matching metal, Xander would almost think that someone just abandoned them here. The gate isn’t even fully open, inviting, but instead is almost shut. The building in front, some sort of small insurance office, doesn’t even have any extra small sign suggesting anything is back here. Which could mean one of a couple of things: it’s a front for some other, shadier business, the owner is retired and doesn’t actually need any money, it’s got a small, loyal customer base through word of mouth, or they’re one of the few who actually does most of their business online. If the dealer has enough rare books, that’s not even out of the question; that can be pretty good in terms of pay. Or at least, that’s what listening in on Giles complaining about trying to negotiate with rare bookstores and booksellers suggests.
Kakyoin glances at Jotaro, but seems a little reassured since Jotaro is looking carefully at his notes. Jotaro is frowning, maybe a touch more than usual. It doesn’t seem to be a worry about whether they’re at the right place, unlike his friend. Johan gets the feeling that it’s probably a combination of two things: this is absolutely a terrible spot to be ambushed, and also how the Speedwagon Foundation or the International Slayers’ and Watchers’ Council managed to find the place given how tucked away it is could be a problem. Even a supposed customer just wandering in from the street could set off alarm bells, like Jotaro’s visit to a certain store to ask about a button. Hell, even asking locals about the store could have alerted someone to the fact that they’re snooping around, and given that a swarm of murder eyeballs was what happened to Jotaro the last time he’d been caught doing that, to say nothing attempted explosions and further eyeballs in Buffy and Giorno’s case.
“Josephine was supposed to meet us here,” he explains with a frown, and instantly Johan shares the worry. Like Josie ever learned how to wait for backup and not just go charging into a situation, and okay, it is weird and slightly cursed that he knows this, now, thanks to Pretender, but he can’t un-know it.
Instantly, he tries her cell phone number, but it just rings. It doesn’t say her number’s been disconnected or can’t be reached or whatever, so she’s probably not in the eldritch zone from We’ll Be Waiting. Probably. He can’t hear it, but for all he knows she turned it to silent, or something. She has a bad habit of doing that.
“I don’t know that we should wait, Jotaro,” Kakyoin suggests, clearly probably also remembering the Button Incident, and Jotaro, reluctantly, nods. He is definitely ready to pull out Star Platinum at a moment’s provocation, though.
Having to go down some narrow steps into what is essentially a basement doesn’t help the impression that this place actually doesn’t want to be found. A crudely painted sign with an arrow to the stairs labeled ‘books’ does actually indicate the presence of a bookstore for the first time since they’ve stepped back here, but it’s done by hand on an irregular sheet of metal by a complete amateur. Someone, Fitz maybe, did actually try for the wooden one above the shop in London. Opening the door lets out two things: cold air and a booming voice that tells them where the missing ‘rest of the party’ went, though Xander’s pretty sure that none of them invited Buluc Chabtan along. At least the cool air of the basement probably makes the heating bills cheap. Maybe it helps him save up for flood insurance. It rains a lot in Rhode Island, doesn’t it?
Xander’s guesses are pretty much proven right, actually, because the bookshelves are actually pretty sparse and fit the slightly cavernous, industrial feel of the place, complete with all metal furnishings, ‘wasted’ space, and slightly unsettling faux-windows that have been chosen for the lighting fixtures on the walls. A piano that looks like it’s never been touched sits in a back corner. If anything, it’s half a gaming shop. Not a traditional one, with card and board gaming tables, but it looks like more strategy games barely taking up one shelf in the back. It looks like an extremely bored Josie and Darling are playing chess in the back but neither of them are really into it or even paying attention to half the rules, given the move Josie just made with the pawn. Both of them are paying a lot more attention to Buluc Chabtan interrogating what Xander has to say is the owner (they probably don’t have more than a single employee, here) at the counter. Johan stares at him briefly, but he’s older and probably couldn’t be Rush with makeup, even if Pillar Man bodies are kind of rubber and malleable. He also looks frightened, but that Xander would only put odds on being about fifty percent real. Because, yeah, he’s scared on being cornered by a god of war Xibalban escapee, but also, he’s attempting to convince them he’s perfectly harmless, and that Xander can’t believe. Even if he doesn’t know about the full extent of it, he has been working with criminals in the past.
So as not to put him too much on the defensive right away, though, Xander wanders out to check out the shelves. Eh, mostly bibliographies and historical kind of stuff. Given the impressive hard bindings on some of these, he’s guessing they probably are the more rare, expensive kind, but he’d just find most of it boring anyway. Of course, given that Rush wanted his hands on something this guy would carry, that’s a major clue and maybe a suggestion that it’s going to get a lot more exciting topic-wise than any of them might expect, but nothing here really seems to narrow it down too much.
Of course, then he wanders close enough to hear Josie say something along the lines of, “I don’t know why you’re making so much of a fuss; I barely arrived before you did,” to Darling, at which point something feels clearly wrong.
