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

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

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

If the car were destroyed, they would have a harder time to trace it to us. By the time they did, we will be gone. [ gettin' the drift... hopefully... ]

You want to blow up the car?

[ this is a terrible idea, which Buffy's tone spells out in no uncertain terms. ]

If it helps, I have done it before. [ no raf. probably doesn't ]

Actually, in most circles, we call that the opposite of helping.

Trust me. [ he slows down, bringing the car to a stop and surveying their surroundings. the road ends ahead, and sports one of those "left / right" only signs. ] It is probably best if you get out now.

I don't think that sounds best at all.

[ Buffy looks deeply perplexed by this. She's not going to just let ?? ? Rafael commit suicide in an exploding car?? What kind of Giovanni Dramatic Nonsense is on the menu today what the fuck. ]

I will roll out with plenty of time. Like I have said... I have done so before.

[ She holds his gaze for a long, stubborn moment. Rafael, known suicidal maniac, does not have a great track record with this. She glances behind them again, huffs, then opens the passenger door. ]

You've done it many times before when you had your strength. You're injured. Be careful.

[ And then she climbs out and shuts the door and looks like an impatient hitchhiker. ]

I promise. [ it's the last thing she hears before her door shuts. his, on the other hand, opens, as he starts the car rolling, keeping one hand on the open driver's side door. the car starts accelerating towards the end of the road, although it looks... unstable, veering wildly from side to side, the vehicle bucking against the force of sudden speed. ]

[ She can't watch.

Instead of looking to wait for him to bail out, she turns around and watches for the police cars, trying to maneuver into a nearby space where she can hide (hide 30). ]

[ the road is eerily clear, actually, as she tears her eyes away, slipping into the shadows of a nearby tree. it's the sounds that are impossible to ignore - a sudden shriek of tires turning in a way that they shouldn't, and then a horrific crunch, as the car hits a fence and rolls once, twice, another half turn into the ditch off the road ]

[ Even knowing he should have bailed out of the car, she can't stop the war her stomach drops. Buffy pushes down the panic, uses it to fuel her, and sprints the rest of the way up the road to try and find where he'd jumped out. ]

[ so, about that.

as she gets closer to the car, which is starting to smoke, she'd seen no sign of rafael anywhere. and the door to the car doesn't look like it's open. ]

[ ... This dumb suicidal idiot. Panic rises up in her throat. Suffocating. She tries to fight it down, to remain calm and sensible until there's more solid proof one way or the other. She races for the car and tries to get the door open. ]

[ the door seems stuck, although she can make out rafael slumped in the driver's seat backwards. the smoke seems to be pouring out faster and faster at this point ]

[ Buffy holds her breath against the smoke and pulls at the door with all her super strength can muster (str 19). Panic and fear later -- action now. It keeps her head steady in the face of it. ]

[ the door strains for a moment before being yanked open, where she can now tell that rafael is completely unconscious, whether from his wounds earlier or from a combination of that and the crash. either way, he is out for the count, and she can feel heat gathering in the vehicle ]

[ It just about kills her to see him like this. One more on a long list of wounds, when it was already too much to bear. She'd convinced herself that it would let up if she could just get him back. She was wrong. Her chest flutters, her eyes wet, which allows the smoke to irritate them more. She chalks it up to all that, ignores her feelings, and unbuckles him.

She pulls at his arm to try and get his weight onto her shoulders so she can haul him from the vehicle. ]

[ it's going to be another strength check to attempt to pull him bodily out of the car in a speedy manner... because smoke is beginning to billow and there doesn't look like much time to waste ]

[ 28! ]

[ hooray for slayer strength

it's with a solid yank that she pulls him free and drags him away from the car as the back end of it begins to spout flames. he's still unconscious, but away from the potential lethal fire that begins to consume the vehicle. ]

[ For a time, after moving the both of them to an area sufficiently far from the car that its potential explosion won't catch them, Buffy collapses. It's too much to wonder if he'd done it on purpose and not have an answer, to recognize acutely that she doesn't have Myri to fall back on to heal him and that she needs to find a way to get him back to the hotel to even begin to improve his condition following an accident that could have still given him serious injuries that she isn't equipped to identify.

It's just too much for one person when she's already trying to juggle the fate of the world. This is the thing that gets her because she's finally alone to let it. Des and Elena are gone. Keijen Blade is a god. She'd violently placed the rest on hold to selfishly get Rafael back, and now for more selfish reasons, they've wound up here.

It's all just ... exhausting. Exhausting enough that she breaks down and cries about it for an extended period. And just in case that has consequences of some kind, I'll break that tag here for now. Barring any though, she'll pull herself together and make to carry him back towards the motel on foot. They hadn't gotten that far. ]

[ while she weeps on the roadside, she would hear the distant sound of sirens down roads the way they had come from, but none of them travel down her direction, and rafael still doesn't stir in her lap, although it is possible to tell that he's breathing. he looks ironically peaceful like this, except for the way that his skin is still covered in bruises and marks from his imprisonment.

it's when she's going to get back up that a truck starts coming down the road - some kind of beat up chevy whose fender is askew, which slows down as it gets nearer. the figure who looks out wears a flannel shirt, and has long auburn hair tied back in some approximation of a man bun. his skin looks to be of a rough golden color and he has a square, but very pretty face. apparently he's kj apa.

he leans out, looking a little uncertain about what he's seeing, glancing back up the road towards the flaming wreck of a car, and then back at buffy, calling out:

"Uh. Is he alright? Do you need help?" ]

We were in an accident.

[ That's the best way of framing it. She looks suspiciously fine to have been in an accident, especially since most of her injuries sustained in the auction are on their way to healing thanks to Slayerness. ]

Could you give us a ride to our motel? It's not far. [ Not the hospital. Definitely not the hospital right now. ]

[ the guy hesitates a moment, glancing down the road and then back at the unconscious dude she's cradling.

"Uh... sure. You're sure he'll be okay? Did you call anyone?" ]

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