mission ♔ and the rest is history

[borrowedheaven]

♬ Firefly - Over the Rhine

WHO || Des, Jade & later: Gar, Kat, Spike, Buffy, Myri [Closed]
WHAT || Des takes Jade home; the Knights attempt to unlock the mystery of the stone Gar discovered...
WHERE || The Hoffman Institute > Nightscape
WHEN || Backdated to Thurs, March 22nd
HOW || Actionspam

[ She lets herself out when Des pulls up, shoving open the front doors of the Institute with a certain degree of attitude that makes it clear how fed up she is with all this. But there's something much more subdued in her demeanor too, and a strange pallor to her cheeks that makes her skin look almost gray as she moves closer, taking the steps two at a time. Someone must have provided her with new clothes, as she's not dressed like a hooker today, but rather wears a dark green loose Bohemian looking shirt that's slightly ruffled, with two ties dangling in the front, and a pair of khakis with a number of funky pockets all over them. She wears less makeup than she had on the other night, but she looks no less striking for it - maybe even more so given that so much of her strange beauty is apparently all natural.

She tosses open the passenger door and sits down hard, hardly seeming concerned with being graceful as she digs a cigarette out of a pack. ]

Please tell me you brought a light.

Comments

[nothingsodivine]

Let me think on that. [He counts on his fingers, keeping one hand firmly on the steering wheel.] What is it? April? [A little more counting.] Four thousand years.

[He gives her a wry smile.] You're not the only one who's a relic in this car.

[borrowedheaven]

[ Jade continues staring for a long moment... and then abruptly a large smile breaks across her face and she laughs, tilting her head back and looking up towards the roof of the car. ]

What are the odds?

I bet the car appreciates being the new kid on the block, at least. [ Still laughing, she turns to lean her cheek against her hand that's still propped against the window, and looks over at him again. ] You look good for four thousand. Though I suppose you hear that all the time.

[ She seems so caught up in the surprise of the revelation that she almost forgets to warn him of the next turn, and jerks her head up at the last moment. ] Oh! A right here. This is the road.

[nothingsodivine]

Yep. And I'm not even Shadowkind. [He glances her way.] And now you know why I've got this vested interest in that talisman. For one thing, I know full-well the kinds of things people can accomplish in that much time. I also know I'm too damn lazy and stubborn to do any of them myself, but someone with ambition... [Eyeroll. And then he pulls on his brakes abruptly and then turns with the kind of mishandling that would make most car enthusiasts cry for his poor brakes and wheel alignment.]

Funny how reminiscing'll kill your road trip.

[borrowedheaven]

[ Jade grabs a hold of the dash, so that she doesn't go flying forward, because lol seatbelt who does that. She nods at an empty parallel parking spot across the road from the large office building. ]

You can park on that side.

[ And then her attention immediately returns to him, eyes narrowed slightly with curiosity now. ] Don't get me wrong. I'm dying to ask 'how is that possible' and all the other questions I suppose anyone would have for someone who's seen four millennium.

But I also know just how tired the whole 20 questions spiel gets. So I'll cut you a break for now.

Especially considering it's clearly not something you're happy about being saddled with.

[nothingsodivine]

Not really, no. [He turns to smile at her before focusing on actually parking and not wrecking his pretty car.] I appreciate it. And for that, I hope you forgive me for askin' you twenty questions about... You. [He waves a hand and then puts the car in park.] Okay, all ashore who's going ashore. Want me to walk you in?

[borrowedheaven]

[ ♬ Lonely Girl - Pink

She untwines her fingers from where they've wrapped up in the chain of her necklace again, as the car comes to a halt, and steals a glance across traffic to where the little fruit stand sits, ironically abandoned in the daylight hours.

And then she looks back at him, and shakes her head. ] I should be fine. [ She abruptly bounces up in her sheet to brush a kiss against his cheek. ] Thanks for the lift. ... And everything else.

[ Her hand moves over to pull up the lock on the door, and pauses once she's done so. She sits there for a full ten seconds, before looking back over at him, a furtive sense of something suggestive in her expression now. ]



... Unless you wanted to come up. [ She lets that hang there for a moment in the air, before she tacks on, with a certain casual ease of innuendo, dropping her voice slightly, one brow tugging up playfully. ] It doesn't have to be a completely forgettable experience this time.

[nothingsodivine]

[He leans over and gives her a very light peck on the cheek.] 'Fraid I'm gonna have to pass, Sunshine. [He pulls back.] You be careful. And I meant what I said. Those guys come back or anyone starts threatening you? You call me. I've got people. I can be here.

1/-

[borrowedheaven]

[ She gives a sharp airy laugh, rolling her eyes at his easy dismissal, but her gaze turns a degree more guarded. She pops open his glovebox, helping herself to a pair of sunglasses and putting them on. ]

Uh huh.

I'll keep that in mind, cowboy.

[ Her hand moves back to the door again, but it's abruptly yanked open before she can even grab the handle. ]

[shootfirst]

[ Annnnd there's a tiny blonde thing in a leather jacket, with a smug as shit smirk on her face, who pokes her head right in. ]

Miss me?

[borrowedheaven]

[ Jade, meanwhile, glares up at her, obviously irked ] Do you mind?

[nothingsodivine]

[Ohhhh no. Oh no no.] You. Trigger-Happy. Away from the car. [In fact, he's getting out right now, lest bullets just MAGICALLY FIND THEIR WAY INTO HIS PRECIOUS 'VETTE.]

[slays]

Oh, relax, we're not armed. [ Actually she's ... not positive about Kat and Gar. BUT SHE'S NOT. ] Not that I need to be. We're here for her, not to blast your car.

[witchwoman]

[This is the first that Myri has actually met either of these two, so she doesn't have any sarcastic quips to add at the moment. She nods at Buffy's sentiment, though.]

We're not here to harm anyone.

[bigbad]

[...whatever, the girls can worry about the mission, Spike's distracted by something FAR MORE IMPORTANT.]

...that's a great car.

[rationalizes]

[ Yep, Gar is standing right outside the door on your side, Des. You're so very surrounded. ]

They're quite right - we certainly intend no harm to either of you. We simply wish to return something to Miss Jade that I believe may belong to her.

[borrowedheaven]

[ Jade swings her legs out of the car, but glances over her shoulder to look beyond Des at Gar's words. ]

Belong to me? [ She looks incredulous at best. ]

[shootfirst]

Well, it definitely doesn't belong to us. [Gar shoots Kat a tiny glare over the top of the car at that comment, but Kat just shrugs.]





[**Please make a SPOT CHECK, erryone, on Jade, in your next tag.]

[nothingsodivine]

[Des rolled a 17, so go him. He turns to Jade and raises his eyebrows.] You don't know what they're talking about?

[slay]

[ Spot check 21, Buffy just steps aside and gives Jade room to get out of the car, pulling the door open all the way and leaning on it. ]

I'm sure you'll recognize it when you see it. Or, well, if you don't, it's probably got something to do with Nightscape. Anyone else having some serious fuzz on what happened back there?

[witchwoman]

[Myri's spot check is only 6 so she's clearly too nervous to be out on an actual field mission and isn't paying all the attention she should.]

[bigbad]

It is getting a bit murky... [Spike's spot check is a 21 too, and he gives Buffy a puzzled look. He remembers talking about it with her more than he remembers the actual experience.]

1/3

[borrowedheaven]

[ Everyone but Myri is a winner! For those who didn't notice it earlier, either while she was singing or in the chaotic hubbub of getting shot at, it's quite clear up close that there's something non-human about Jade's looks: and with the way she has her hair today, it's easier to see that her ears have an almost elven cast to them, though it's not as prominent as it is with, say, Luthir or any of the dark elves they know.

She looks back to Des, shaking her head. ] No clue. But let's see it.

[rationalizes]

[ Gar reaches in the pocket of her coat with a smile, and pulls out something wrapped in a white handkerchief. She carefully unrolls it and holds it out, basically in front of Des' face. It appears to be a small flat stone, that fits in her palm. Engraved into the rock is the very familiar symbol of the Talisman. ] There you are.

[borrowedheaven]

[ Jade looks over at the stone and a deep frown cuts across her features, though she shakes her head. ] It's not mine. But where did you get--

[ And she reaches over to pluck it right off the handkerchief.

Immediately, the lines cut into the stone begin to glow, a bright green light racing through the image, and then just as quickly, the light shoots upwards about half a foot from the top of the stone and hovers there, an image of the symbol suspended in mid-air. She lets out a slightly startled sound, but doesn't let go of it. ]

What--

[ And abruptly the image changes itself, working into a new pattern, until it looks like a projected digital image, though it has that strange glowing green cast to it. The picture that it changes into is one of her, like a reflection looking right back at the surprised girl. ]

[bigbad]

[Spike already noticed the not exactly human thing! He notices it again now, apparently. But he gets distracted from that quickly by the exciting glowing image that's just shown up.]

...might not be yours, but seems like someone wants you to have it.