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

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

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...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Myri only makes it halfway to the cellar before she stops dead in her tacks, a short cry escaping her before her breath is taken away. She's not in any actually pain, but her Gift refuses to let her continue moving forward while she knows that someone has been hurt.

No. Not just someone. Buffy.

She doesn't have time to call out to Kat, who seems to be unable to open the cellar door. She just turns around and runs at a full sprint. Each step makes the choking feeling ease just slightly. She can take full breaths just as she realizes how close she is to the fighting. She's nothing more than a scared rabbit, isn't she? But there's no room for feaer when her friend's life is on the line.]

Buffy! [she shouts, not caring if it draws attention to her. But there's no time to start the healing after a run like that.]

[ ♬ no light, no light - florence + the machine

well, rafael still misses all of this. because the bad guys are directing a giant spotlight into the house off the back of the truck, and as he comes out from cover again to take aim, it blinds him from seeing anything that's happening outside, period. he squints and holds one arm up to shield his eyes... and then shoots out the spotlight with a nat 20 and it shatters into a million pieces in an epic manner.

so much for THAT.

also they keep shooting at him but lol no one can hit him suckas ]

[ meanwhile, kat notices myri turns around and yells after her: ]

Where are you going?!

[ one of the soldiers sees myri booking it towards them and fires her way, but she's moving too fast and he can't get a lock on her at all. her cries seem to distract the 2nd guy, who hits the tree when he tries to follow buffy.

that third asshole, who hit buffy upside the head before, is right behind her, and cracks his weapon against her again violently, saying something in italian that can't be very nice. (atk 24, 5 dmg). ]

[ when suddenly a flash of silver comes spinning around from the other side of the tree, stabbing that asshole right through, critically. he jerks in surprise, looking down at the protruding blade soaked in his own blood, but it's yanked out within the very next second as isabella whirls towards the others like WHO WANTS A PIECE OF DIS ]

[ her attempts to compress her wounds (treat injury crit fail) just wind up with one of her fingers actually pressing into the hole the bullet left and she lets out a gasp of pain as it just worsens it (2 dmg). which makes her really glad to see myri coming up, shouting her name, and even more glad when it seems to distract two of the three remaining swat guys. unfortunately, she's too distracted to notice the third behind her taking another swing. she grunts out and staggers forward, turning around to get ready to hit him and --

finding isabella there. her eyes widen and she sucks in a sharp breath, glancing between the guy and isabella. she finally settles on a look of gratitude for isabelle, then turns around to deck one of the remaining two -- the one who'd dared take a shot at myri (atk 27 dmg 16). ]

Are these guys after you, or us? [ because right now, it's impossible to tell, but isabella's type a enough that she might have some idea. ]

[Myri steps close to Buffy and immediately her hands go to the wounds. It's instinctual how quickly the magic pours out of her. She has to fix it. Everything about her feels wrong until it's fixed.

She doesn't care about Isabella. She doesn't care about the dead bodies. Well... actually, she does. Her Gift doesn't discriminate, so her heart is breaking for them, despite knowing that they were trying to kill her just moments ago. She can feel the life slipping out of them. And it's so hard not to follow them into the void.

So she focuses on Buffy's wounds. Her hands grow warm, and like every time she heals, she does take a small step into the void. She can see every life energy, every soul. It's almost too beautiful- it's hard to leave. But she has work to do. She can't go when there's so much to do. Meanwhile, Buffy's thigh wound is all but healed. (Cure Light Wounds: +11hp) Myri blinks several times, weary as she always is after healing. It's only then that she even notices Isabella and takes a step back, defensive.]

[ Isabella doesn't answer at first: instead her rapier goes whizzing towards the one soldier still standing over here, who jumps backwards, trying to take a shot at her. she cuts to the left and spins, slicing him across the torso as she moves to his side. not until he slumps to the ground does she toss a look over her shoulder towards buffy, eyes flashing with obvious distrust ] ... Do you really mean to pretend you did not lead them here?

[ ♬ End of All Hope - Nightwish

oh hey, now that the light's out, rafael finally sees you guys out here, and makes his way over the shattered glass and out onto the lawn, firing off a shot in hiro's direction to take down the one dude who was trying to sneak up behind him. his second shot hits the doors of the van, which fly open, even as the driver starts the vehicle back up. ]

[ the next thing that happens is a tiny shape comes flying out of the back of the van doors -- a grenade. but as it arcs towards hiro, he jumps up in the air, does a flip, and kicks it -- back into the truck.

there's a few muffled shouts from within, and then abruptly the entire truck is rocked with an explosion as hiro leaps backwards with insane ease, clear of the flames that engulf the vehicle.

the remaining couple guys climb into the cab of the truck that's still good. ]

They're getting away! [ kat aims her gun wildly and sends a shot off... apparently towards the tires of the vehicle, but yeah. it doesn't go anywhere near there. :( ]

[ buffy isn't really in any position to go running after said truck, and truth be told? better away than here. whoever it was, they'd probably make another attempt at ... whatever that was sooner or later, so it wasn't like they'd totally lost their only chance to learn something about them.

unless wynn fired them.

mostly she's just distracted by how fucking awesome hiro is right now. ] He has got to show me that one sometime.

[ she gives myri a look of gratitude as she feels her leg start to heal. the healing tissue pushes the bullet out enough that buffy can get a grip on it and pull it out, leaving soreness and a nice-sized cut, but nothing actively working to make her bleed out like it had been.

with that handled, she rolls her eye at isabella. ] If we'd brought them here, do you really think I'd waste my time fighting them? Or getting shot? 'Cause it's really not as fun as it looks. [ she straightens up and goes to one of the guys lying on the floor, who look more unconscious than dead. ] It's okay, kat. Their friends will talk when they wake up. [ she crouches beside one of them, looking up at rafael. ]

Do you have rope?

[Myri's going to let Buffy take the lead right now. Her head is still swimming and she'll probably be a little woozy for a few more minutes. She frowns at Isabella's comment, though. They had done a very find job helping. When the grenade goes off, she jumps, eyes going wide again.]

[ it's alright, guys, hiro is on that shit. he turns a very calm but silently judgmental stare in kat's direction from behind those shades... and then leaps up into the back of that other truck and pulls the doors open, climbing inside. he comes up with a gas mask, which he settles on his face, and then, facing them, nods once, and then draws both doors closed on himself as the truck trundles off down the road, taking him with it. ]

Maybe you became a liability, and they thought it would be better to do away with all of you--

[ rafael cuts her off with a very sharp movement of his hand, marching over to buffy's side, seeming to ignore her request for rope, or isabella's bickering, or anything at all besides the man who is starting to stir groggily.

to assist him, rafael kneels... right on his arm. hard. and yanks his helmet off, letting it roll onto the grass, as he holds his gun to the man's temple.

as the man's eyes roll open and slowly focus on the hard face glaring down at him, he starts to croak something, but rafael cuts him off sharply with a demanding question in italian. ]

[ meanwhile, gar comes around the corner finally, and sees all this, looking startled and horrified, and her gaze lands on the other knights, as she moves rapidly to their sides, whispering: ] What in the world is going on?

[ buffy shrinks back as rafael moves beside her, like she's quick to try and avoid touching him, and she only looks more uncomfortable as he starts interrogating the guy. but she doesn't stand up and walk away, just averts her gaze towards gar. ]

That's what we're trying to figure out. [ a beat. she glances sidelong at rafael because she's honestly not sure what he's saying. ] I think.

Isabella assumes that we brought these men here- that we are associated with them.

[She doesn't understand any of the Italian, so that's the best she can offer Gar. Plus, she's had a rough day. She's almost been fired and is now being accused of being a bad guy. Not cool.]

But we are not. [She turns to Isabella.] We do not wish to harm any of you.

[ ♬ The Scientist - Coldplay

Isabella opens her mouth to reply but she's cut off by a sudden twisted chuckle from the man on the ground. It's the cruel, hollow laughter of a man with absolutely nothing left to lose. He replies to Rafael in English, perhaps spurred on to such by everyone else speaking in the language, and there's pure vitriol in his eyes as he stares Raf down.

"You cannot stop us. You cannot save yourselves. Take us down, and more will come. They will keep coming." He grins more wildly. "You've been sold out, Giovanni."

Rafael's eyes harden even further, and the gun clicks in warning as he demands in a tone that would make anyone leap to comply (intimidate check 25): ]

Sold out by who?

[ The man's eyes trace across the group and he licks his lips, the smile gone now.

"Paolo." He returns his gaze to Rafael, letting that sink in. "Paolo spread the word to everyone. You're a dead man. There's nowhere you can run, because they're all coming to wipe you out. You and your little half-breed whor--"

He never finishes the sentence. There's a loud BANG and his head slumps to the left immediately.

Rafael's grip on the gun is so tight that his knuckles are all but white, and he stares down at the now dead body with a hard and terrible look in his eyes before finally lifting his gaze to meet Buffy's. It's only then that he seems to register that she's still there, and his eyes skid across the others, taking in Myri, Gar, Kat, Isabella, and the scene of the yard. The hard eyed anger seems to fade out and as he looks to Buffy once more, there's something else there, as if the smiling mask of the singer they'd spoken with earlier has been stripped away entirely now, revealing an almost entirely different man. There's a great depth of sadness, regret, pain, and even something of an apology hiding in his eyes, but he doesn't vocalize it. Instead, his voice is carefully steady as he says: ]

Isabella, call someone to come for the rest of them.

[ she looks, of course, almost ready to protest, but when she meets his eyes, she seems to change her mind. there's a change in her demeanor as well after hearing the now dead man's words, and she whispers: ] Paolo. [ shaking her head, and then turning, casting a silent gaze at the girls that seems to still hold a lot of blame - and a lot of threats.

and she heads back in the direction of the house. ]

[ gar watches all of this in silent horror, and the moment isabella turns away she swallows and then says: ] I think we all need to discuss some matters.

[ buffy's expression softens with a sort of pained sympathy as she meets rafael's gaze, and she reaches out to touch him at first until he speaks. then she just drops her hand like it never happened.

it's with more maturity that she meets this big heap of not who she thought he was than when she encountered spike's. there are circumstances, things people don't understand, things they don't understand about each other -- didn't have time to.

and she realizes, most importantly, that she's not exactly a paragon of honesty and forthcomingness. so she doesn't hold it against him, even in the wake of all of this. not like she would have a few months ago.

she ducks her head, then slowly straightens up, trying to avoid looking at the dead man beside them. ] Let's get inside.

[No one has to tell Myri twice. Being outside with all the dead and dying just makes her sick. And she's already not feeling her best, so she just focuses on walking towards the house.

She understand Rafael's decision to hide parts of himself. She's done it before, which is why she doesn't necessarily see it as an issue. There are things that you do in order to survive.]

[ he leads them back in, stepping over the glass and then drawing them down a hallway past lots of debris and bullet holes in the walls, tracing one hand across them idly as he does so. he doesn't speak again until he's brought them inside one of the living rooms on the untouched end of the house, and allowed everyone time to sit. he stands by the window, looking out. ]

Isabella, Hiro, and I are members of an organization known as the Shadowkind Resistance Movement here in Italia. Perhaps I do not need to tell you how bad things really are here, but perhaps I do. There is much that does not end up reported on the news, and things have gotten only bleaker in the last twenty years, instead of better. Shadowkind go missing from their homes, entire neighborhoods are raided for harboring those deemed 'dangerous' with no cause, families are separated, executed, imprisoned...

[ he looks back at them, eyes landing on Myri ] I thought you must be Shadowkind when I first saw you. [ he indicates her hair ] I thought perhaps the rest of you were, or if not, perhaps you did not realize how dangerous it was here for any non-humans -- especially young women -- to stay here alone.

[ and then he fixes his gaze on Buffy ] You asked if I knew Jade in the Shadow World. I'm not sure what gave you that idea... but I was born here, in Italia. It was my father who came from the other world, many, many years ago.

Waitaminute. He knows Jade? [ yeah, her and myri missed that train ]

attempting to tag on phone while on break (unsure)

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