new orleans ♔ made a deal with a red right hand

[rationalizes]

♬ The Devil is a Girl - Andi Almqvist and the Employees

WHO || Gar, Kat, Mark, Dumage, Martha, Myri, Buffy, Spike, Des, Arthur, Finnick [Closed]
WHAT || Team Failboat flies to Lousiana to check out a lead, and two new Knights fly out to meet them there
WHERE || Chicago > New Orleans & London > New Orleans; on the plane; at the hotel
WHEN || Wed, April 25th
HOW || Actionspam

It's taken a few weeks to get some incredibly convincing fake IDs, etc. made up for Des, since he's kind of sort of banned from New Orleans, on top of how long it's taken to research what the building was that showed up on the magical 'map' revealed when Jade's touch activated the mysterious stone taken from the Hoffman Institute.

It appears to be the headquarters of a record label known as NOVA Records: a revelation that provoked a response from Kat and Myri, who promptly relayed to the rest of the team what they had discovered about the connection between NOVA and the Brotherhood of the Enlightenment: chiefly that the co-owner of the organization, Chad Becksworth, was donating large sums of the money privately to the Church for reasons unknown. Considering that Jade had claimed Raoul Jacobson, the man who accosted her at her club, was masquerading as a talent agent for 'some record company', it seems to all tie together somehow. Gar seems convinced that the team is hot on the trail of the talisman, which is motivation enough for Des to come along - since he doesn't want to see anyone find the thing, bt isn't about to let them run off and screw everything up.

Wynn agrees, apparently, that the lead sounds promising; promising enough that he sends Finnick to replace Sven, and to agree to send Arthur on the mission as well. WOO, progress!

As usual, being team Failboat, you guys all have to take public transportation and mail your weapons and supplies ahead to pick them up when you arrive in New Orleans. The plan is to break into teams to investigate the Louisiana State Museum and NOVA Records HQ, so once you've met the newbs, it'll be time to figure out who's going where!

[[Various threads will go up below: as always, pick and choose what interactions you want your character to be involved in. Also, you're free to (and encouraged to) make your own threads for general socializing / city exploration / whatever the fuck you wanna do]]

Comments

[shootfirst]

[ side-eyeing your life rn ] ... Buffy, you realize that we work with like... dark elves and chromatic dragon bloods and other ~evil races~ too, right? There's this thing called overcoming where one came from or... whatever bizarre instincts you're born with.

[slay]

[ THOSE THINGS AREN'T EVIL. THOSE THINGS DON'T KILL BUFFY IN HER DREAMS. ]

Yeah, dark elves, and -- and dragon whatevers, they're not soulless, blood-drinking monsters. This is different, and you know it. Until you knew Spike was one, you would have said the same. He lied to use because he knew it!

[shootfirst]

Actually, I'm pretty sure red dragons are like... exactly classified as monsters. Sort of like definitive examples of monsters, really.

[slays]

Kat, you said it yourself. Vampires can't be good, not ever. Besides, it's not like he's winning any personality contests either way. The guy's an ass!

[shootfirst]

I said for all I know there could be exceptions. And Wynn doesn't let anybody into the club who's bonafide evil. Just doesn't happen.

Besides, wouldn't you be grumpy too if you had to spend all your time and energy fighting off all those nasty evil blood-drinky urges and all you got in return was people giving you crap about it anyways?

[slay]

I can't believe you're on his side! [ she's so offended, voice raising a little. ]

[shootfirst]

Buffy, this isn't about sides. I'm trying to do you a favor, because for some reason Spike's a lot more easygoing about this than... well, a lot of other people out there. But judging people based on what they are when they're trying to be different? Is going to make people look at you the same way they look at this Church we're going after, that thinks everybody who's not human deserves to be in chains. I know it's not the same thing and you have your reasons, but that's how it's going to be viewed.

Trust me: there are monsters out there, but there's also plenty of surprises too. Maybe Spike's one of the surprises.

[slay]

[ She softens at that, relenting. She knows Kat's right. She settles back against her seat, sinking down into it, shaking her head and looking away miserably. ]

Every cell in my body tells me to hate him. From the first time I saw him, I just felt like -- [ She stopped. ] And sometimes, he makes me feel like I should, you know? Like, I have more than enough reason to. Sometimes, I hate him so much, I -- [ Her lips tighten. Then her voice softens into something more reluctantly vulnerable, something gentle and honest. ]

And then other times, he's ... [ Her brow furrows, sharp creases drawing heavy lines in her forehead. ] And then that just makes me hate him more. [ Because it's confusing. Seriously confusing. ]

[shootfirst]

[ something in her explanation seems to hit a vein or something from the way kat's expression shifts, and she too flumps back against her seat, half grumbling her reply ]

... Just take my word for it when I say I may not be on the exact wavelength but I'm not entirely unfamiliar with the sentiment.

[slays]

I don't know why he keeps coming back. [ It's honest. At least Buffy admits her vast faults. She fidgets with the edges of her notebook. He just wanted know what she was drawing. After a pause, she decisively tears out the sheet. ] Do me a favor?

[shootfirst]

... Sure. What kind of favor?

[slay]

[ She hands over the paper. ] Will you give him this when you go back up?

[shootfirst]

[ Kat looks down at it with slight surprise, but then nods and takes it, trying very hard not to look at its contents ] Can do.

[slay]

[ oh my god kat it's a modern art rendition of buffy's abrasive soul as flower-pressed steel wool, not a love letter with all of her deepest thoughts and feelings. ]

Thanks. [ She tucks the notebook away under her seat and gets more comfortable. ] So what about you? How's your flight going? You're not stuck next to a fat snoring guy or anything who demands the window seat and then falls asleep, are you?

[shootfirst]

Not so much. Stuck next to Gar, and behind Mark. At least it's not Dumage.

[slay]

She's probably too busy rubbing herself all over Spike for anyone else to get stuck next to her. Lucky us ... I think.

[shootfirst]

You noticed that too, huh?

[slay]

Is there any one of us who hasn't? She's like a cat in heat.

[shootfirst]

At least if we need a bad guy humped into submission, we know who to call.

[slay]

Remind me again why we even brought her along?

[shootfirst]

Well, the rare times she decides to actually do work, she's pretty effective at what she ... does.

[slays]

Does "what she does" ever involve something that's not skeezing all over some guy?

[shootfirst]

Theoretically?

[slays]

[ well, that answers that. ]

Thought not.

[shootfirst]

Hey, I figure better her than me.