CHAPTER FINALE ♔ cause it's always raining in my head

[narcosynthesis]

♬ oceano - josh groban

WHO || Keijen Blade, Nadia Reichenov, Rafael Giovanni, Buffy Summers, Alainn O'Rourke, Myrilandel Odair, Finnick Odair, Desmond Descant, Elena Gilbert, Rose Hathaway, Fredrick Jr., Jack Chessing, Kat Samcelot, Jeanne Gar, Spike, Sterling Archer, Violet Reedhym, Burt Becksworth, Isabella Alessandro
WHAT || Failboat does the Grammy's, tries to stop Keijen Blade's performance from reaching the masses, and aspires to save Nadia
WHERE || Staples Center, Los Angeles
WHEN || Feb 8th, 2015
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread.

The day has finally arrived: the 2015 Grammy's gather together musical talent at the top of the food chain, which means that NOVA Records will be well represented at this year's ceremony. Unfortunately, this includes performances from Keijen Blade's band, Heatless Passion, and Nadia Reichenov's, Derere, both of whom are working for "Chad Becksworth", aka Draken Crombe, head of the Shadowkind-hating cult, the Church of the Lord's Humanity.  Equipped with some sort of ability to hypnotize large crowds with subliminal messages, Wynn fears what lies beneath Keijen's intended performance, and is sending his Knights to shut down the broadcast, to prevent that message from being spread to millions of viewers worldwide.

Meanwhile, the gang finally has a chance to see Rafael Giovanni again - but what he's been up to in the months since they last saw him, and how his reunion with Buffy will go, remains to be seen.

Several of the Knights have decided that this is their last chance as well to try and break Nadia free from Keijen's influence, now that they've learned the truth about him - that Keijen is in fact Kel'in'hrae, sadistic son of the Nightmare God Malaak'a, likely working to free his father from the prison Sehanine had created for him.  The prison sealed by the relic that the team has been chasing for years, believing it to be an immortality-granting talisman of great power.

The truth, it seems, was worse than they could have imagined.  

One step at a time, however, and stopping the signal is first priority on Failboat's to do list for now.  With an actual plan under their belts this time, maybe this is the turning point they've been waiting for...    

Comments

elena ; open

[doubletake]

[Guess who still writes in a journal? Old habits are hard to break.

There seems to be an awful lot of tapping the back of her pen against the page, of her leg bouncing up and down as she fidgets in her seat.

She might be kind of nervous about this. Maybe. Just a little.]

[graveflowers]

[ vi doesn't mean to just flop into the seat next to elena, there was mean to to be so much more grace than that, but instead she barges in like here comes honey boo boo and makes a face as she careens into the seat. ]

I will give you twenty bucks and a full on back massage if you doppelgang into me right now so I can see if my ass looks as fat as I imagine.

[ friendship is not only accepting your friend's powers but asking to use them as a mirror. if vi ever starts to think elena's ability isn't cool then she is a pod person and she needs to be killed. ]

A neck massage too. [ 'cause it's not a very painless process as she remembers. ]

[doubletake]

[She grins as she turns her head toward Vi, raising one brow at that request.]

Now there's one I haven't done yet.

[Pretend to be preggers that is.]

That's not going to be particularly effective if I'm sitting down.

[graveflowers]

[ ugh does that mean she has to get up again? she assumes it does, so she does, using the back of the seat to heft herself up. ]

I do strive to always give you something to push towards.

[doubletake]

[More like she was whining that she has to get up, so she presses a hand gently into her breastbone, pushing her back into her seat before she insanely gracefully gets up and easily contortions herself over her belly and into the wide aisle (dex nat 20 okok).]

Just give me a second. This one might take a little bit to figure out.

[But she ends up not having much trouble at all. Doppel!preggers is in full effect (disguise 46). She's getting damn good at this.]

[graveflowers]

[ sweet, sitting. she watches elena do her thing with the same awe and delight as always, tinged with pride that she's gotten so accomplished at it. it's incredible, elena's power, and vi loves it. but she probably loves it because of the woman who wields it, not the power itself. (which is admittedly cool.)

speaking of. this exercise was a good plan because vi finds it exceptionally hard to be unkind to her family and although she can look at herself in the mirror and pick out every flaw and every minor detail to blow out of proportion, she can't do that when she knows it's elena.

so while she looks in the mirror and sees a whale, when she looks at elena, she finally sees what she actually looks like; which is a still svelte woman with a basketball shoved up her shirt. probably what happens when you're underweight to begin with, but the difference in size had been so mind boggling to vi it distorted her entire image of herself.

her jaw slackens, mouth forming a small 'o', and she looks at elena with confusion all over her pale face. ]

That's what I look like? Are you sure? 'cause you're so cute. [ the unspoken part is that, clearly, violet is not. ]

[doubletake]

If you're asking if I adjusted anything to make you feel better, you better rethink that in a hurry.

[She does a slow turn, makes a couple attractive poses because why the hell not, before she leans against the side of one of the seats, a hand on one hip.]

I don't know if you've realized this, but baby bumps are freaking adorable. If anything, gaining a little weight made you hotter, considering you probably needed it.

[She's being honest because she knows that Vi would probably want it, not to mention it's completely true.]

I bet 90 percent of the time, you're looking at yourself by looking down, and that's no way to judge your appearance, alright?

[dragonsclaw]

[ jack glances over, offering her a small smile from across the aisle when she meets his eye. ] You'll do fine. We all will. If we go into this expecting everything to go wrong, we might just prove ourselves right. Things have to turn around somewhere.

[doubletake]

[She gives him a small smile.]

One would hope, right? [S-so optimistic.] It's less expecting things to go wrong and more remembering the ways it already has.

[It wouldn't be so bad if these weren't the same fucking people. If 'Chad' is there, then so is the Mind Master.]

[dragonsclaw]

The two tend to go hand in hand. [ he frowns slightly, looking down for a moment.

thomas was his bff after all. ]

[doubletake]

I thought I'd shaken it with time, but I guess not.

[She shrugs her shoulders, trying to play like she knows it's just all in her head (bluff 40).]

It'll be fine. I can do this.

[chessing]

[ there's a bit of relief in his eyes that makes it clear he's bought her confidence, at least ] I'll certainly be glad to have you with us.

[doubletake]

[She doesn't bother to hide the fact that she...really appreciates that statement.]

You have no idea what a relief it is to hear you say that.

[If anything, it makes her more confident, because he's another person that she hadn't been sure would...maybe not want her here.]

[littledhampir]

[She'd debated not saying anything at all, just continuing as if Elena doesn't exist in her orbit like she has been ever since they'd had their run in back at the Castle many months ago now. It didn't sound like they'd need to be working together if everything went to plan but Rose already knows that when it comes to Keijen, things rarely do go that way.

She'd be lying if she said that the hurt didn't linger but a lot of the anger she'd been carrying around with her after Andres had dissipated. Dean had played an huge part in that, the fact that things between them were going well, that Sam wasn't the same constant worry he had been, that not one of the nine devils had tried to use her for target practice. The things in her life were slowly starting to fall into place, Rose moving forward instead of feeling like she was standing still.

Perhaps this is a conversation that would have happened eventually but there's nothing like a mission involving Keijen Blade to fast-track things and while Rose manages to avoid it for the first half of the flight, she finally slides into an aisle seat near Elena as she's coming back from the bathroom, silence hanging for a long moment.]

I hadn't really planned this bit... [At least making it clear that she hadn't chosen to sit here by accident, silence again hanging in the air as Rose struggles with ya know, words.]

[doubletake]

[Elena's will save isn't all that much better than it was in the briefing room, but this time around it's more about tension and anxiety than any wtfuckery at her presence. There's a lack of anger in her expression; the vast majority of that has faded over time, and if anything there's apathy where it used to be.

They both fucked up as far as Elena's concerned.]

If it makes you feel any better, I'd be plopping down in the seat next to you if I'd managed to figure out a plan myself?

[littledhampir]

[Rose leans back in her seat, lips pressing into a grim, almost smile as she bobs her head, letting out a long, huff of air as the silence returns. She'd figured that once she sat down, words would come out and there might even be some kind of air clearing but mostly it was just Rose not sure what she even wanted to say.]

A little? [Glancing briefly at Elena.] I just... Looks like we're going to have to work together so, ya know.

[doubletake]

If everything goes to plan, I don't think I'll be seeing most of you. But we all know how often everything goes strictly to plan.

[Failboat.]

I know you probably don't trust me anymore, but for what it's worth, if everything goes to hell, I'll have your back.

[littledhampir]

After what happened with Keijen the last time? [She shudders visibly in light of recent revelations.

Those words force Rose to look at Elena, lips pressed together, lost in her own head for a long moment as she tries to decide if that's true or not. Her shoulder lifts in a slow, uncertain shrug.]

I figure, there's no room for personal crap when it comes to something like this.

[doubletake]

Yeah...

[She remembers that night all to vividly, and catching that on the news had been a part of it.]

It's already forgotten as far as I'm concerned, Rose. If anyone's still carrying any of that, it's you. [She's not even judging, really. She gets it. She's getting exactly what she deserves.] At this point, I'm just trying not to get in your way.

[bigbad]

[Spike slings himself down in a seat next to her shortly after the incident in the cockpit. He's tense. Not that anyone isn't right now, but it's especially clear with him right now. Still, his voice is even, more or less, when he speaks.]

You know your boy toy has been actively trying to kill me, right?

[doubletake]

[Elena's eyebrows raise briefly at the...name, before she shrugs her shoulders.]

He just practically tried to crash the plane. Sometimes I think he's trying to actively kill all of us at one time or another.

[bigbad]

[He raises his eyebrow at her.] Is that supposed to make it better?

[doubletake]

Look, if he actually wanted to kill you, you wouldn't just be sitting here complaining to me about it. He'd be in a holding cell or something because he would have either done it or actually hurt you.

[Archer may be crazy, but he's not that dumb, right? It's not that hard to look up vampire weaknesses...]

Do you want me to talk to him?

[bigbad]

He's been collecting silver bullets as long as he's known what I am. I haven't felt the need to tell him they won't do anything. I still thought he was all talk... up til I convinced him pie was a vampire weakness and he attacked me with it.

[He scowls.]

Not sure what offends me more... that he wants to kill me or that he's so bloody incompetent at it.

[doubletake]

And if he really wanted to kill you, he would have emptied them all at you.

[She sighs.]

Look, you should practically feel honored. He's scared of almost nothing, but clearly you intimidate the hell out of him. He probably just wants to not feel vulnerable or whatever.

[Is she trying to humanize Archer? WTF is even happening rn?]