Honestly, this is starting to get pathetic, and a jewel like the ‘Slayer’s Mad Whelp’ ain’t allowed to get pathetic, so Spike just walks up, emphasizing his footsteps so as not to startle.  The human gives no indication that he’s noticed, but Spike can tell all the same.  “You’ve been lookin’ for a prezzie for the witch, yeah?”
        Xander’s head darts up, cautiously hopeful.  “Yeah?”
        “Well, she’s been talkin’ about little fuzzy furballs recently, ‘n I happen ta have a standin’ invitation ta a weekly poker for kittens game.”
        On one hand, judging by that smile, Spike will lose money.  On the other hand, he won’t regret the chaos that ensues.
        And he doesn’t, even the all-too-innocent way the boy suggests mahjong instead, produces a set from goodness-knows-where, does his absolute best to teach them in a few ‘practice rounds’, and manages to spank them rather soundly when they ‘play for real’ anyway.  He refuses to take the whole pot rather good-naturedly (“I only needed the one, thanks”) and is generally just so damn polite and charming that they don’t even mind that he obviously hustled them all for a single kitten.  Spike’s been bored, and this is downright entertaining.

        It gets confusing quick, keeping track of all the Personas.  He’s got the most, because he has less Arcana he just can’t equip and because he’s got a bigger pool he can carry around in his psyche at one time, for whatever reason.  Still, useful as it is, he doesn’t want to waste too much time in the Velvet Room, staring at the weird magic-real world equivalent to menu screen.
        It’s on him to pay attention to all this analysis stuff—powers, weaknesses, and the like.  Sure, Teddie can help, and he puffs up, being able to confirm and help his Sensei get ready for a dungeon, but still…there’s a lot going on, memorizing isn’t his strong suit, and he needs a system.
        So he builds a ‘playlist’.  He associates every Shadow, every Persona, with a song, and pretty soon he doesn’t need to even glance at the Compendium or what his party members currently have equipped to know what’s there.  He just…knows.
        It has an effect on how he switches Personas, too—Chie does a fancy twirl to switch between hers, and he’d started with swapping between cards, but that hadn’t felt right.  Hadn’t felt like him.  Now he scrolls like he’d scroll through a playlist on his mp3 player, and that feels right.

        The next time, he’s sitting in his cabin, uniform unbuttoned and reading a book for once, when he feels he’s suddenly no longer alone.  The breeze is also kind of a clear indication of who exactly has joined him.  This time, though, he definitely knows the technomage hasn’t landed, so this is some type of hologram, which makes him feel oddly bold.  That, and maybe the alcohol—he is off duty, after all.  “What do you feel about me?”
        Galen’s smile is amused but fond, eyes twinkling with mischief.  “Oh, that’s an easy one.  I like you, Matthew.”  He promptly disappears in a cloud of smoke that likewise is quickly blown away by the wind.  That theatrical bastard.  Gideon is nearly certain of what that means, because there’s no need for the technomage to be cagey and give a non-answer (or an obvious one) if all he felt is friendship, and that also putting up with all the questions is probably some bizarre courting ritual.  But he’s definitely not going to call Galen back and ask him to clarify if it’s “like-like” as if he was a young schoolboy with a crush.  He has some sense of dignity and pride.

        “What kind of time do you call this?”  Xander doesn’t even have it in him to be surprised.  “And what kind of costume do you call that?”
        He could protest that it takes a ridiculous amount of time to put on a wig, something that Snyder obviously wouldn’t get because he’s obviously never worn one in his life.  But he’s not going to care.  And sure, he’s probably not going to care about the next bit either, but at least if he turns it on the Troll at least he’s slightly more likely to be defensive rather than offensive.  “Hey, a wig and some makeup counts as a costume!  Unless the school plans on making some kind of costume fund…”  He touches one of the bruises, the fact that he knows it’s coming the only thing that stops him from flinching.  “You’d like the story for this one—a clever if nosy and lazy teenage detective that pokes his nose in the wrong place and gets beat up for his trouble.”
        Snyder does shut up about that, at least.  He smirks at the thought (man, why did they pick a legit sadist to run a school) and then just starts right in on barking orders, which was the point, anyway.

( references the last case in Apollo Justice; not too spoilery but placing under cut anyway )

Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure AU
Summary: faster to read
Word Count: 125
Rating: Gen

        “What will you do with your Stand, once you have one?”  Jolyne side-eyes her father; this has to be his weird version of small-talk, because it’s the most pointless question he’s ever asked her.  And she can’t quite know how to respond, because she doesn’t know all that much about Stands.
        That’s a start.  “Well, what does a Stand do?”
        “Good answer.”  He’s not obviously smiling, and his tone doesn’t change much, but she gets the feeling he’s proud anyway.  “Well, even with humans without powers, you have those who use their talents to help people, or themselves.  And there are those who prey on the weak.”  Jolyne opens her mouth, but notices the steely gaze and clenched fists, and suddenly she has her answer.

        The time the Stand User tries to pretend to be Kakyoin, it’s immediately obvious.
        To most people, it wouldn’t be.  Sure, he’s acting strange, but they’re under a lot of pressure and it’s not like he’s known him that long.  But it’s clear this imposter, whoever he is, can get the physical details down, but the song is wrong.  Discordant.  A person’s song changes with their emotions, sure, but this is different, like someone’s trying to imitate a song by reading completely unfamiliar musical notation.
        Of course, it takes Jotaro a while to work out what the hell any of it actually means.  His first thought is ‘possession’, because it’s not exactly the same thing—he’s seen, and fought, a possessed Kakyoin before, the music is more a wrong note hit here and there, like some high school band’s first attempt at a song, not some…bad imitation.  But it’s not exactly like there’s a manual, and it’s not like he has anyone to ask.
        He’d briefly thought the old man might know, that this is how hamon works, but breathing is not gonna be his strong suit in a fight, ever, and he doesn’t seem to know anything about…he’s not calling it soul music, that’s just inane.  His questions about music had just sent jiji off on some rant about a parody artist, and the old man was so loud and obnoxious he didn’t bother to try to pry further to see if he knew anything useful.
                He doesn’t actually find out it means a fake until the man reveals himself, at which point he’s too busy fighting for his life.  But he files it away for later, just in case.  It’s not likely that they’ll run into another shapeshifter, but it’s worth remembering.

        (He only hears after the fact that there was, in fact, another Stand User with shapeshifting powers, morphed as him.  Yare yare daze.  Even he wouldn’t need some sort of extra ability other than Star Platinum to sense that one, face-to-face.)

( under cut because warning )

        “They sent a doctor for you right away?”
        “I never call unless it’s urgent.”