new orleans ♔ there's always a siren singing you to shipwreck

[dragonsclaw]

♫ Butterflies and Hurricanes - Muse

WHO || Buffy, Alainn, Rose, Sam, Dean, Faith, Felicity, Isabella  [closed]
WHAT || The Ex-Knights of Failboat head off to interrupt an auction for Rafael Giovanni's life...
WHERE || New Orleans, LA
WHEN || A couple weeks post-LA
HOW || Actionspam

Held in the grasp of the Knighthood's enemies for a stretch of time that has been an aching splinter in the heart of the ones who love him, Rafael Giovanni's life now stands up for auction.  Having made a number of powerful enemies in his days as the vigilante assassin The Black Scourge, including the secret Vatican police known as Iscariot, Draken Crombe's organization sought to capitalize on the many who sought revenge by sending out word that Eterna Jade was not, as his trial had seemed to prove, the Black Scourge at all, and offer the chance to kill or torture Giovanni to whoever would pay the largest sum.

The Knights, being made aware of this, did what they could to stymie this auction from coming to pass, and Buffy Summer and Jack Chessing managed to at least thwart it several times, leading to its cancellation and inevitable rescheduling elsewhere.  However, none of this led to Giovanni's actual location. 

The capture of Draken Crombe finally allowed them to learn of the latest plans for the auction - to be held at a location in New Orleans, a temple of some sort.  It seems that Crombe's other followers still intend to follow through with ridding themselves of Rafael, making it clear that even with Crombe in Knights' custody, the villains still have some organization or leadership.  Tia Ellison rattled out the plan by invading Crombe's mind, learning of the way that he had been psychically manipulated by the Mind Master for years, and doing what she could to start to heal his shattered psyche.  

Jack Chessing, eager to see Rafael rescued after their many efforts, cautioned however against sending too many on what might be a mission from which there is no returning.  To that end, they've tried to split the forces of their magic-users, fighters, and researchers.

Now, it's up to a few to save their friend... without losing any more.

Comments

[savemyself]

[hunter - bjork

isabella is pressed against a window, dressed all in (still very stylish) black, speaking for the first time since they've boarded the plane now as she glances at buffy, her words a cold agreement ] I doubt there will be any there that we need feel guilt over killing.

[klep]

Do we have a layout of the place? Or any idea about what the timing of this is going to look like?

[Because there's are both very solid places to start.]

Do you know if they've run auctions like this before?

[likedillinger]

The building is some kind of temple, but the only blueprints we've got are so old, they might not mean much.

One story, huge compound. Large central room where they're probably gonna do this thing. There is a back entrance, but it'll be guarded too. Guests arrive at seven, auction starts at seven thirty.

[msattentionspan]

Think this'll have catering? Rich people and all their little miniature food making them feel like giants? 'Cuz, that could be an easy way in. [Says, like, all the movies she's seen where it works.]

[littledhampir]

[Having followed Dean up to the front.]

We can deal with the guards. [Clearly less worried about hired muscle than just about anyone else that will be there.]

That gets us eyes inside the main room. [Nodding to Faith.] One team inside while one moves in from the back?

[klep]

Can you deal with the guards quietly?

[It's not a sarcastic question, it's a serious one, because the more noise they make outside, the more likely they are to attract more guards and the more likely this will all get shut down before they get what they're looking for.]

[savemyself]

[ isabella shakes her head, eyelids dropping closed as she fights against the tension clearly wiring her entire frame ] We have already shut down this operation prematurely several times. They will not be having an outside organization involved to provide food.

If it's a temple, it's likely all servers will be internal - members of whatever group this is.

[familybusiness]

We're probably gonna need a distraction if anyone's gonna get inside far enough. Maybe even several distractions.

[He's not sure they're gonna come up with much of a plan, but something at all is better than nothing.]

I'd say we could try sending someone in with the rest of the guests, but that risks tipping them off and having them run again. We might want to wait to move until everyone's inside and it actually starts.

[klep]

Sam has a point. Maybe if Faith and I and anyone else who won't obviously be outed as Knights can get inside without causing too much trouble, we can sneak around, find out where they're holding Rafael, and then you guys can make as much noise as you want.

[She's not opposed to messiness after the fact, but if they make too big a bang before they find Rafael, they may just decide to cut their losses and kill Raf anyway. At least if a Knight is with him, someone can have his back.]

Chaos can work in our favor, but it needs to be controlled chaos.

[likedillinger]

Maybe these priests or whatever have some kind of robes or something. Think you could knock out a couple and swipe some?

[msattentionspan]

[Faith is a little bummed her sneak in with the catering idea wasn't going to work, but she can handle putting a few people into storage closets and stealing their get-up.]

I mean, I can knock them out -- not sure on the amount of trouble it'll cause.

[klep]

What is this place a temple to?

[Maybe that's the advantage they've been looking for in looking for a way inside to steal some priest robes.]

[savemyself]

The registered name is clearly a cover, but given who is likely arranging this auction now, I think it is safe to guess that this is a temple of the Eternal Serpents.

Snakeblood worshipers.

[likedillinger]

Not sure any of us have the forked tongues to pull off that kinda disguise.

[familybusiness]

I've gotta be in a disguise anyway. Couldn't that be part of it?

[savemyself]

I assume our mage can handle that. [ she waves a hand at alainn ]

[littledhampir]

[Rose just looks at Sam like. Why.

Before...]

Dean and I can go inside as well. [#codependence She knows where this is going she just skips to acceptance.]

[klep]

Whoa, wait hold on.

[Felicity waves her hand, before people start jumping on the bandwagon to go inside.]

Everyone is going inside eventually. But we have no recon. So I think it should be a really small group going in disguised as priests so we can get the lay of the land and find out where Rafael is.

[savemyself]

And we agreed they should be the people least likely to be known. [ she shrugs ] She is right.

[familybusiness]

[Sam just looks over at Rose and Dean with a slight shrug of his shoulders like 'they said it, not me.']

[littledhampir]

[ Rose is just gonna stare at Sam because. Bitch why.

Non-Verbal arguments for the win. ]

[likedillinger]

[ dean hates everything ] They can't be beating around the bush in there. They need to be ready to call us in if anything gets outta hand.

[familybusiness]

The goal is to get in and get Rafael out right? The less out of hand it gets, the better.

[Guess who hasn't been on a failboat mission before...]

[savemyself]

Then I think we are all of a mind on this. If there are no other questions? [ she looks around, lips tautly drawn in a line that discourages any of said questions, more than invites them ]