venice ♔ the piano keys are black & white but they sound like a million colors in your mind

[romanticidal]

♬ Spider's Web - Katie Melua

WHO || Rafael Giovanni, Isabella Alessandro, Hiro, Kat, Gar, Buffy, Myri [closed]
WHAT || Kat, Gar, Buffy, and Myri spend the night at Rafael's.   Nothing of consequence happens at all.
WHERE || Rafael's villa, an hour outside Venice, Italy
WHEN || July 6-7, late night.
HOW || Actionspam, NO TAG ORDER

After returning from her interrogation date? outing with Rafael, Buffy was ushered back into the girls' shared rooms, where Gar and Kat and Myri have set up shop. Myri and Gar both spent most of that time on the phone: Gar with Wynn and Myri with Finnick, and Rafael dropped by to wish all the girls a good night before retiring and leaving them alone with Buffy.

As the household settles into sleep, maybe now is the time they can get some serious snooping done... 

Comments

[witchwoman]

[Myri is serious business right now. She's walking with a Move Silently of 19. She even gives Kat a look at her unstealthy movements, but won't SAY anything about it. She just wants to do this and do it right.]

We left off at the kitchen and only really got a look at one other room before that. If only we knew where he had his computer...

[shootfirst]

If only there were a spell for 'discern wireless hotspot'. [ sigh ] Well, let's head kitchen-ward and try the opposite direction this time.

[witchwoman]

[Myri is keeping a moderate ear out for any signs of life in the house (other than Buffy and Gar, obvs) with a Listen check of 11. She remembers the path to the kitchen fairly well and since there's no better plan than to go with Kat's suggestion, she just keeps on chugging until they are near enough to the kitchen to get their bearings.]

[shootfirst]

[ she might pick up the distant strains of music, which will be a good sign to avoid that section of the house for snooping purposes. as they head through the kitchen, kat scoops an apple off the counter for good measure and takes a bite, nodding down the opposite hall. ] What's the plan of action if we open Isabella's bedroom door?

[witchwoman]

The plan is to not do that. [Myri tosses back, joking. Sorta.]

Perhaps I will let you handle that one. When Hiro came upon us earlier, I was not so quick on my feet.

[Okay, maybe Wynn's lack of faith is eating at her a little.]

[shootfirst]

Quick feet are overrated. Plus, it's probably hard to out-quick-feet a small Asian man. [ wow, racewank ] C'mon. Let's just try all the doors. [ annnnnd a spot check and a listen check as they pass by the back door k ]

[witchwoman]

[Spot 17, Listen 7... Did Myri forget to clean out her ears before this new adventure?

Maybe she's too busy listening to Kat's racewank and trying to understand what one thing has to do with another there?]

[shootfirst]

[ yeah kat doesn't hear it either. but both girls would simultaneously notice the same thing: several large, black, heavily armored looking vans pulling up towards the house and coming to a stop. ]

... Kinda late for visitors...

[witchwoman]

[Myri's eyes go wide.] Should we find the others? [Is there even time for that? Ahhhh Myri is freaking out.]

[shootfirst]

[ 10th Man Down - Nightwish

The back doors of the vans slam open and men flood out, wearing full body gear in black and carrying what look like sub machine guns. A fact confirmed when they start SPRAYING THE GLASS DOORS WITH BULLETS. As they go to raise their guns, Kat shouts: ]

GET DOWN! [ and drops behind the counter as there's a gigantic explosion of shattered glass and shit.

she looks up from her space on the floor, groaning: ]

I think they'll figure it out.

[witchwoman]

[Thank goodness for Myri's life of being hunted by murderous zealots. Her reflexes are awesome (Reflex nat 20). She's down before Kat even shouts. Guns, however, are still something that Myri isn't used to, so she's a little scared out of her mind right now.]

What do we do?! [She shouts over the gunshots, trying to keep it together.]

[shootfirst]

I don't know about you, but I never go to a dinner party without packing. [ and she yanks her gun out of her waistband. because she is just that classy. ]

[witchwoman]

[Someone needs to teach Myri to be a good Boy Scout so that she can also Be Prepared. But she isn't, so while Kat starts to warm up, Myri will just stay down and try to think their way out of this.

Think think think.

Didn't she hear something when they were walking? It was faint, but wasn't there-]

Music! [She exclaims suddenly] In the hallway as we left. I heard the piano playing. Buffy and Gar might have gone that way to find Rafael.

1/2

[shootfirst]

Great. No time like the present to play Last Action Hero. [ she checks her clip and nods back down that hallway ] Though I'm really wishing I'd graduated to lobbing fireballs right about now. Some wizard.

[ she waits until there's a momentary break in the sound of bullets pelting cupboards, and then runs for it, keeping low until she gets to the hallway, where she stands... and runs into the arm of an armored man who's coming in from where the front entrance is off to the right. the blow staggers her backwards a bit. ] Sonuvabitch! [ and she makes a weak attempt to grab at his arm... ]

[romanticidal]

[ ♬ Guitar Hero - Amanda Palmer

and it's time for the two threads to converge. because what myri would see from one side is the same thing that gar and buffy will see from behind as they head down the hall.

rafael strides towards them, and everything seems to happen in slow motion: he reaches up and rips his suit jacket open to reveal two guns holstered beneath. he draws both in one smooth motion, without ever stopping his forward momentum, and then takes two shots right at the scrape kat's in the middle of.

one bullet pounds through the man's chest, as if the armor were scrap. the second goes critically into the very side of his head, an almost impossibly precise shot, sending an explosion of blood and brain matter fountaining in an unfortunate kat's direction. she staggers backwards, dropping her weak hold on the guy's arm as his body slumps to the floor. his weapon clatters beside him. ]

[witchwoman]

[Myri catches up with Kat just in time to see Rafael's display. She's just about as dumbfounded as Kat is, except with a little more flight than fight so she shakes out of it. Since everyone can see it, Myri can probably see Buffy and Gar?

And if so, she's going to grab Kat's arm and tug to head to them fast]

[slay]

[ it's brutal and terrifying and in that moment she realizes that he can't possibly be as baffled to find out she's anything other than a gushing fan than she is to realize he can steel himself and coolly kill two people. she chokes on stench of blood and it calls back to a half-remembered dream that slips out of her fingers. she's still running, but it's in a haze, like she's not actually there running, but she can see herself doing it.

she reaches myri and kat, crouching some and keeping her voice low, lest the intruders hear. ] West side cellar. We'll explain. [ as much as they can, anyway. she pulls open the door to another room in the hall, checking it for windows to get themselves out of instead of going through the gunfire. the gunfire that rafael's adding to.

she feels sick as she roughs open the locked window without unlatching it (str 16) and she gestures for kat and the others to get out first. she's just trying to repeat his hurried directions in her mind. outside safely. west side of the house. cellar. wait for a path if you can't. she tries not to think about the fact that he meant a path he'd shoot. safer is to stay away from the confrontation, lest one of them gets shot. again. ]

1/-

[rationalizes]

[ gar looks back over her shoulder, obviously still in disbelief over what she saw back there. but then she goes to clamber out the window, landing in the bushes.

they're about fifty feet from where the vans are parked to the left, and a lot of those dudes are storming towards the house now. ]

2/-

[inevitablekungfumoves]

[ but abruptly, there's a sudden rain of blows from within the threshold of the blown out doorway, and the gun of the front man is suddenly in the hands of hiro. who then uses it as a bludgeoning weapon to crack the guy across the head in one clean motion that sends him sprawling, the gun dropping as well as he steps over the body and to the next guy. repeating the same thing again: a few well placed blows that are so fast you can barely see his hands, and suddenly the man's disarmed, and then he's on the ground. rinse and repeat. ]

3/3

[shootfirst]

[ kat leaps out the window in one awesome motion, landing in front of the bushes, but gets caught up in staring at hiro as he goes to town ]

Is everybody in this whole house Chuck Norris?

[witchwoman]

[Myri crawls out of the window after Kat and Gar, looking around wildly. She spots Hiro's sweet moves, but doesn't get Kat's reference, so all she can do is start heading for the west side of the building. She just wants to be as far from those guys with guns as possible.]

[slay]

[ spot check 13 for the cellar entrance. buffy's urging them to the west side of the house, but she comes to a stop when they come up alongside hiro's conflict. she waves the others on. ]

Get to the cellar. I'm gonna go back and help Hiro and Rafael. [ she doesn't have time to explain where her mind's going, because they're a little too rushed. but she figures kat and gar can do enough to keep myri safe and she can keep them alive while the others deal with the sudden invasion of rafael's house.

even though it feels like one more line of craziness between them and the talisman, it's rafael's house they're attacking, and considering he's shadowkind in italy, and apparently something of a badass in his off hours, it's most likely that they're here for him, not the girls.

buffy's not about to lose her chance to get the answers they need to stay on their mission just because he asked them to go pull the big scaredy run-away. ]

1/-

[shootfirst]

[ kat skids to a halt, the cellar door visible far down this side of the house and turns to face buffy ]

Then I'm coming with you! You don't get to have all the fun. [ she pulls her gun up and starts to move past buffy... ]

2/-

[rationalizes]

[ but gar grabs her by the collar and pulls her back: ]

Kat, you're the only one of us with a weapon. We're going to need it to protect the cellar. [ plus she sounds all disapproving about kat finding this fun. She looks back at Buffy hesitantly: ] Please be cautious.

3/-

[shootfirst]

Fiiiiiine. Come on already. [ she grabs Myri's arm and heads in the direction of ze cellar... to continue in the new thread below \o/ ]