new orleans ♔ need a fix cuz i'm going down | down to the abyss

[romanticidal]

♬ Season of the Witch - Dr. John

WHO || Rafael, Buffy, Spike, Des, The Mind Master, Olean Gilbert, anyone guarding Olean in the car... (including Gar) [closed]
WHAT || The Knights go to investigate Chad Becksworth's mysterious 'advisor' in her bayou home
WHERE || The Lousiana Bayou, outside New Orleans
WHEN || Thurs, Oct 18th, evening
HOW || Actionspam, don't sweat tag order! Keep it a rollin'.

Crammed inside a big white van, Olean rides up front, directing the driver outside the city of New Orleans, and in the direction of the stretches of swampland for which Louisiana is famous. He has them turn down a side dirt road, which leads them far off any highway or main street, and seems to go on without passing anything remotely similar to civilization for at least sixteen minutes of the drive.

The closer they get, the more he begins to sweat profusely, wiping his face repeatedly with a handkerchief, until he can't find a spot on it that isn't drenched. Finally, he tells them to pull over, waving his hand at the side of the road, and the vehicle pulls to a stop.

"T-this was about where we w-went in," he says. "But I can't tell you anymore, because it was only the once, and there wasn't a real path and ... and... I wasn't exactly paying attention to how to get back there anytime soon. Or ever."

Rafael cranes his neck to look out the back window, but then just pops the back doors of the van open and hops out.

"We'll find it," he says, a determined look in his eye. He nods a bit up the road, at what looks like a dilapidated shack that could be straight out of Cabin in the Woods. In front of it stands a sign that's fallen over, with "FREE TOURS" in white paint that dried dripping half down the wood. There's a light on inside, glowing through one of the windows. "And it looks like someone knows of a path."

Comments

[bigbad]

My head's still ringing. [He glances down at the experimental monster lady then back at the empty throne.] Wonder why she left. She was loads scarier than that thing.

[romanticidal]

Most likely because she did not seek to fight. Though I do not believe it was out of fear of us. [ not with the way she raped spike's brain over there. he turns his gaze back to the double doors ] The swamp was not easy to travel through. We may be able to at least catch him yet.

[slay]

Good idea. With the entrance we just made, my bet's this'll be our last chance for a while. If people crashed your secret lair, wouldn't you make plans to move it? [ she started to walk for the doors, but quickly enough picked up into a quick-paced run. if they were lucky, maybe-chad would think himself to classy to actually put the run in his big scaredy runaway. ]

[romanticidal]

Si, though I have a feeling she will be much more difficult to keep cornered than he, unless he bears so many surprises up his sleeves. [ he shoves the doors open to usher everyone through, so they can make a run for it ]

[bigbad]

[Or a fast-paced stagger in Spike's case. His leg did get munched on by a crocodile. He's trying not to let it show.] Way this day's been going, he probably does.

[romanticidal]

[ listen checks for as they get closer to ground level, prego. ]

[nothingsodivine]

[Des trails behind so no one sees him doublechecking the wound on the side of his chest healing. Somehow he still gets a nat 20 listen check, but I guess it's because he's not gossiping....]

[romanticidal]

[ leave it to the guy who's a zillion years old to recognize that sound outside.

GET TO DA CHOPPAH.

yep. definite helicopter blades starting up somewhere out there, as they see the cellar doors up ahead. ]

[slay]

[ with her listen check of 13 she hears shit all. ]

Please, just this once, let those doors be to a very narrow hallway or a very dead end, and not outside. [ she beelines for them, all the same, picking up pace. ]

[bigbad]

[Welp. Spike crit failed so he just hears ringing from the fact that his brain was raped. JUST STAGGERING ALONG DEAFLY DON'T MIND HIM.]

[nothingsodivine]

[Des pushes ahead when he hears DA CHOPPUH.] Unless it's an extra evil airplane hangar in there, I doubt it.

[mindmaster]

[ when they burst out back into the shack at ground level, the sound becomes clear to everyone, except for spike. sorry spike. maybe you'll at least make your spot check. beyond the little cabin, visible through the windows to those who don't crit fail, there's a small silver helicopter lifting up into the sky. NOVA is emblazoned on the side of it, and the man they saw inside is visible on one side, while the mind master is operating it.

another helicopter sits on the small landing pad below. ]

[slay]

[ people who should fly this helicopter: not buffy.

with a spot 16 and the fact that she hears the helicopter now, it's pretty safe to say she sees it. flying away. with those two inside. she looks to the other one, grimacing. ]

Any chance one of you fine gentlemen knows how to pilot a helicopter? At this point, I'd be willing to settle for extensive experience in simulator video games.

[bigbad]

[HE SURE MADE HIS SPOT CHECK it's a nat 20 spot check so he can make out every freaking speck of dust on that copter.]

...I could try. How hard can it be?

[nothingsodivine]

[Spot check 16. He looks mildly green around the gills at the sight of it too. IS HE AFRAID OF HEIGHTS. Or maybe it's just the prospect of Spike flying it that freaks him out.

He turns to Rafael.]

You better have mad piloting skills in that bag of tricks of yours, Little Italy, or I'm taking my chances with the gators.

[bigbad]

Question is if he can pilot it without nearly killing one of his teammates. [STILL BITTER.]

[romanticidal]

If that is all it takes to nearly kill you, you may need a better line of work, no? [ it's said with annoyingly good humor even as he gestures for them to move to the chopper ] I have done this once or twice before.

[slay]

How about we save the sniping for once we're in the air, huh? And preferably at them. [ buffy's ignoring their dick-measuring and climbing into the copter with the assurance that rafael knows how to fly. because she probably wouldn't have gotten in if they were relying on spike's best effort either, sry spike. she scrounges up a headset and puts it out - btw she took the copilot seat, des and spike can have back, she and rafael need to cuddle. while he ... flies a helicopter. ]

[nothingsodivine]

[Wow. He was actually expecting Raf to say no...]

Is there anything you can't do? I bet your teeth even glint. [YEAH, WHATEVER. Des is getting in the back.]

[bigbad]

[Whatever, Spike has all the right in the world to whine. On top of the bullet, Buffy's still getting all cuddly with that wanker! What does she see in him? Sure, his voice is all right, and yeah, Spike supposes Rafael's reasonably attractive. And okay, when he's not shooting his teammates, he can, Spike supposes, hit the broad side of a barn. But there's.... well... his accent. It's bloody ridiculous. How can anyone like someone who talks like that? And honestly, he's a bit too pretty, if you ask Spike. Going right over into poncy.




........Spike's pretty sure he could take him. In unarmed combat, anyway.


He climbs into the helicopter next to Des and glares daggers at the back of Rafael's head.]

[romanticidal]

Do not speak so soon... [ yeah he's hitting all the buttons to turn on the helicopter but he must be forgetting some step because it's not so much starting. (pilot check 9) ]

[slay]

I think that one needs to - [ wow good thing buffy's up front because through some miracle of god, she manages to help him out. apparently she's better at figuring out a helicopter than a car, because she's flipping on the right switches and gets the rotor turning (pilot 22). ] There we go.

[bigbad]

[Haha. :-) Spike can't help feeling a bit of satisfaction at Rafael's failure. Especially since Buffy then manages and it turns out they're not stuck here forever. He turns towards her in surprise.]

You can fly?

[slay]

I can read. [ she points it out anticlimactically and indicates labels on the instrument panel. ] And on occasion, even see lights. [ a look to rafael. ] No, uh, offense.

[nothingsodivine]

I'm just glad he's not perfect. He's a pretty boy with two guns and an Italian accent, but he accidentally shoots people just like the rest of us.