chicago ♔ beside you in time

[romanticidal]

♬ Right Where It Belongs - Nine Inch Nails

WHO || Buffy, Spike, Finnick, Myri, Dawn, Archer, Elena, Kat, Gar, Mark, Isabella, Burt, Des, Rafael, Violet, Francesca, Luthir. [closed]
WHAT || The events directly following the day of Jade's death
WHERE ||Various, Chicago
WHEN || July 5th, 2013 to the funeral
HOW || Actionspam

[ Following a long night after returning from the hospital where Jade finally passed away, there remains a lot to be said and done.

As Burt struggles to deal with the legal side of things, Francesca begins to head that way across the ocean in order to help the Knights do the same, and to help Finnick leave his celebrity life behind somehow. Violet takes the full weight of responsibility for planning the funeral into her hands, and the others continue to try to cope with what's occurred, and slowly put the pieces of information that they have together.

But many of them are still reeling from the revelations of the last few days, or carrying their own emotional burdens. Des continues to keep the truth about Jade's last words to himself as he deals with losing a woman he'd come to love, and faces up to a now uncertain future, thanks to a deal struck with Iscariot. Myri worries deeply about the potential fate of Violet, who's been considering hunting down Keijen Blade on her own, and her concern causes another small rift in her relationship with Finnick. Buffy finally reaches a point of breaking down over her conflicted feelings for Rafael, as Elena assists Archer in completing a giant fireworks bomb for reasons unknown.

This log covers the events leading up to the funeral, which means it will most likely cover a day or two or three. We will use it to make threads for any and all events occurring during this time. ]

Comments

GRAY DEBRIEF LOG | ONE THREAD

[nothingsodivine]

[By the time that Des, Buffy, and Rafael return from their adventure, everyone has started returning to the hotel and, once again, there's a perceptible aura of "big news" hanging in the air. Des hangs back, figuring Buffy can explain the situation, because he's not revealing his part in this unless he absolutely has to. Not in public anyway.]

[notaroundme]

[Yeah, sure can cut this tension with a knife. She comes into the room and promptly flops down on the couch, leaning her head back against the back.]

Good news or bad news?

[She's guessing bad. That's been the trend lately.]

[65]

[the couch where finnick is still sitting, so hey gurl. as buffy and des walk in with rafael, a wave of relief washes over him. HE WON'T HAVE TO CARRY ANOTHER DEATH ON HIS CONSCIENCE PRAISE JESUS. now he's just pretending to be mentally disturbed (moreso than he already is) and tying knots so he doesn't have to answer any questions about why he let rafael free into the world without a second thought when the topic inevitably comes up.]

[shootfirst]

[ kat wanders in from the kitchen ] Can't we go one day without any news? It seems like the good kind's forgotten where to find us. Maybe we didn't leave a forwarding address.

[witchwoman]

[Myri is wearing her awesome new tshirt so everyone can just be jealous of that. She's on the other side of the room when she sees both Des and Buffy and catches the tension in the room. She makes her way to the couch but only sits on the arm and looks concerned.]

[slay]

[ lucky for finnick, the topic won't ever come up, because more secrets are being kept and no one learned their lesson from last time. :) instead, buffy gives elena a tired look. ]

Hard to say until we know more. While we were out, we ... we ran into a few people. And, I use the word "people" lightly.

[graveflowers]

[Vi is laying on her back with her feet proped up against the wall with a mixing bowl of chocolate chips that she is steadily inhaling. And not sharing.]

People-ish like, what, they look like people but aren't?

[nothingsodivine]

Basically. [He leans on the wall.] Three guys. Little blonde guy, an older man, and this dark-haired pretty boy. The older guy calls himself Mr. Gray. They wanna help us get Rafael off the hook. They've got a vested interest.

[notaroundme]

Oh, yeah, that doesn't sound suspicious at all. Let me guess, they wouldn't tell you what it was?

[slay]

More like not why it is. They want Rafael free and clear, and they want Des far, far away from Iscariot. [ her gaze falls on spike, level. ] I'd seen one of them before. At the concert, then later at the hospital. [ she'll ... leave out the part about having seen david anders before, too. ]

[bigbad]

That git? [Look, he wasn't even a jerk, Spike is just grumpy with his life on principle because he doesn't like people being secretive. COUGH. COUGH.

A beat. Then he glances at the other two.]

Could, uh, they see him too?

[nothingsodivine]

They don't want Iscariot getting a legit immortal. That's a good enough reason to be all over my business. [Des pinches the bridge of his nose.] We could that time. They put the whammy on me, so I can see 'em when they're cloaked.

[romanticidal]

It was me to whom they offered this deal, so I imagine whatever keeps them hidden from our eyes is something they can control. They allowed me to see them.

[slay]

Whatever their real interests are, I think it's safe to bet that in this, we're on the same side. [ esp since she's pretty sure chibi usa ... healed jade some and helped myri out with that. and gave buffy warm fuzzies. ] But, that doesn't mean we shouldn't be looking into who it is we're getting the helping hand offer from, or how they know so much about what's going on here.

[notaroundme]

So even if we don't know everything, at least we all have the same goal. That's good, at least.

[But better if they can take care of it themselves and leave the creepy trio out of it is what she's taking away from this.]

[rationalizes]

I suppose it can't hurt to have some allies in our cause. [ a beat ] Aside from you and Mr. Descant, I mean. [ oh right, raf and des, you don't even go here. ]

[nothingsodivine]

[Des looks at Raf and then shrugs in Gar's direction.] Don't look at us. We're boned if you screw this up somehow.

[HE CAN SAY THAT BECAUSE HE DOESN'T GO HERE.]

[witchwoman]

Do we have any way of looking into who they are? I'm fairly certain we won't be able to... doodle 'Mr Gray' and find everything about him.

[...Google. She means google. But her crit fail computer use/knowledge check means that term just flew right out of her head.]

[slay]

There's one other thing.

They said that if we let them help, if we need them to step in, it'll mean that - [ her eyes flicker meaningfully over to des ] - That someone else could, too. Someone bad. I think that might be our best way of figuring out what these guys really are.

[nothingsodivine]

[Des looks like he might actually explode, because when he said DON'T DO THE THING UNTIL I SAY SO, he didn't exactly... mean this. Well, sort of. But still. HE DIDN'T WANT TO TELL EVERYONE.] Buffy.

[bigbad]

[Spike raises his eyebrow at Des.] Something you want to add, mate?

[nothingsodivine]

[Oh.

Maybe he should have... thought that through. He stares across the room, wondering if he can fast talk his way out of it and then figures Buffy will tell them the truth if he vagues it up.]

I ran into the dame that cursed me. For a certain definition of dame. No clue what she is, but Gray says she's bad trouble. The really bad, really old kind.

[rationalizes]

Some sort of ... goddess or something else?

[nothingsodivine]

Well, I've been reliably informed she ain't the goddess I thought she was. Something older. You got anything in the librarian head of yours on things older than gods.

[graveflowers]

Titans. Er, primordial beings of creation. [Piped up from the peanut gallery over here.] Actual mother earth and all that jazz.