chicago ♔ everybody's looking for something

[romanticidal]

♬ Let There Be Drums - Carl LaFong Trio

WHO || Buffy, Rafael, Spike, Jade. [closed]
WHAT || Buffy, Raf, and Spike return to Chicago to attempt to convince Jade to come perform with Finnick & Raf
WHERE || Airplane & Nightscape
WHEN || Tues, Nov 27th
HOW || Actionspam

[ Talk about your desperate gamble. Burt Becksworth is in great danger of losing his control over NOVA Records, which would leave all of its assets squarely in the hands of his evil cultist brother, Chad and whatever diabolical plans he has involving the Talisman and his hideous experiments. Obviously, the Knights aren't ready to stand for that, but the only way of helping Burt maintain control is to help Rafael and Finnick skyrocket their careers to incredibly heights of fame. Burt believes the much sought after Jade to be the key to that, but she's seemed very adamant about staying put in the past.

Time to find out if anything's changed...]

Comments

[bigbad]

[Alas, he does not crit fail and crash into Jade, sending the four of them to their inevitable doom (drive 18). Instead, he just keeps going and hopes Buffy doesn't somehow shoot him. He... wouldn't put it past her tbh.]

[romanticidal]

Catch!

[ sweet dreams - eurythmics

with a mad dex check and a roguish grin, rafael tosses the gun deftly to buffy (reflex save dc 6+ to catch it since it's so expertly thrown) and then swings his other arm around, unloading a couple shots towards their pursuer. one of them hits him in the leg (dmg 8), but the driver does some expert swerving, seemingly unaffected by the bullet, and he retaliates with a shot that strikes raf in the side (dmg 10). despite getting hit with yet another bullet, rafael kind of looks like he's enjoying the hell out of himself over there, and jade and spike both drive apart in opposite directions to avoid an oncoming car with their super drive checks. unfortunately the bad guy is just as slick. ]

[slay]

[ buffy catches the gun with ease (ref save 15), and then turns it immediately on the motorcycle behind them. she doesn't particularly care if she hits the motorcycle or the man on it, but she fires off a shot (atk 20, dmg 11). ]

[borrowedheaven]

[ JADE STILL R DRIVING, but buffy's shot strikes the driver right in the shoulder and he veers suddenly to the side, narrowly avoiding crashing into a taxi ]

[bigbad]

[SPIKE STILL R DRIVING TOO it's exciting do I need to make a new drive roll now or what.]

[romanticidal]

[ naw it's ok bro, dude is almost defeated. raf tries to blow out his tires with two shots, but that misses with the way he's careening around like a drunky, so finally he just gives up and shoots him, finally knocking him off his bike, either dead or unconscious or just BLEEDING EVERYWHERE and unable to continue operating a motor vehicle.

/init ]

[slay]

[ buffy's gut sinks as she watches the bleeding man fall of his bike. shooting them or not, he was a person, and - she grimaces, shooting a meaningful look in rafael's direction. she holds it for a moment, then tucks his gun into the back of her pants and wraps the hand she'd used to shoot back around spike's waist.

quietly, miserably, she murmurs; ] Let's hurry up and get out of here.

[bigbad]

Seems like a sound plan.

[And Spike's gonna keep biking (on the shady side of the street) right on back to the hotel like a badass.

Trying not to think about Buffy's arms around him.

Also just in case he does hit some sunlight during that time he got a nat twenty fortitude check GEE COULDN'T HE HAVE GOTTEN THAT BACK WHEN IT MATTERED?]

1/2

[romanticidal]

[ rafael goes to slide his gun back into his holster, as jade rides over a bump, cutting a corner too short. the gun slips from his grasp and clatters onto the pavement and he looks back at it as if he just dropped his child, before turning to jade and saying: ] Wait!

[borrowedheaven]

[ she just keeps trucking ] Yeah, no offense, guy, but I'll buy you a new one.

[slay]

[ buffy glances back like she's hoping she can grab it for him but yeah that's not happening. at least she still has his other for him ... ]

[romanticidal]

[ BUT RIGHT NOW HE'S NAKED that's disturbing 8(

anyways, they pull up at the hotel they'd intended to stay at that night, and jade leads the bikes around to the back of the building inside the parking garage and out of sight. once they get in, rafael dismounts, and immediately stumbles, because holy shit, he is bleeding a lot everywhere, fuck. ]

[bigbad]

[Boy they probably should have brought a cleric or something huh. Spike dismounts and glances over at Buffy, trying to decide if he should offer her a hand or not. Her bleeding leg decides for him. He's mad at her, but he still can't bear to see her hurt. He offers her an arm.

Then he looks over at Jade, giving her a wry smirk.]

...seeing as your Barbie dream club seems to be a bit destroyed, how do you feel about going on tour?

[borrowedheaven]

And whose fault is that it got destroyed, exactly? Because to me, it looks like they followed you there. [ still she basically just gives him a 'whatever' eye roll and turns to offer rafael an arm, holding him up ] Maybe you should worry about patching up your friend here before you break out the Amway pitch again.

[slay]

[ she meets his gaze for a moment, skittish. but whether or not she'll accept the offered arm is quickly decided by his brazen lack of care for rafael and his harshness with jade. she stubbornly climbs off the bike all on her own, staggering when weight lands on her injured leg, but she makes her way to rafael's side all the same. ] There's a first aid kit in the room, we can do what we can up there if you can make it. But, I don't think hospital's a good idea, all things considered. [ there's worry there, like she's searching for whether or not he'll say no, he needs a hospital, it's that bad. ]

[romanticidal]

No. No hospitals. [ he waves a hand to dismiss the notion and winces. ] I can clean it up if we get inside. [ he takes a deep breath and straightens up, leaning a bit on the girls as they head towards the door. we'll say it's a motel for ease of getting the fuck inside the room.......... ]

GDI

[bigbad]

[No one gets his sense of humour. :-(

Fine, Buffy, he wasn't even sure he wanted to offer you an arm.

He follows them, glancing around (spot 26) because if he's gonna be the dick of the group, at least he'll be somewhat useful and wary in case the people who attacked them knew where they were headed. He's come out relatively unscathed next to Rafael and Buffy. If there's a fight, he'll probably need to do the heavy lifting.]

[slay]

[ there's a parking garage at this motel now. buffy misses when they stayed in classy places with the whole group. she isn't down for this winchester peasant bullshit. anyway, she's helping rafael limp inside, and trying to ignore her own injury. she heals pretty fast, she's noticed, so it's not a real concern.

once in the room, she flicks on the lights, and foists rafael off on jade so that she herself can go get the first aid kid. ]

[borrowedheaven]

[ she forces him to sit in a chair and nods to his shirt ] Off. [ and without getting a boner, he manages to start trying to peel his shirt off slowly, at which point jade's eyes dart away and search the room for spike. she wanders in his direction. ] Is this the part where I launch into a lecture about how you all could have gotten yourselves killed for me... again?

[bigbad]

[Spike shrugs.] We nearly get ourselves killed for loads of people. Sort of in the job description. [He glances over at Rafael, face more or less neutral.] Course, he's not on payroll.

[slay]

[ SPIKE STOP TRYING TO SET BUFFY'S TRUE LOVE UP WITH HIS TRUE LOVE. ]

We're dedicated that way, I guess. Any chance our selfless sacrifice'll make you reconsider the tour? [ she gets antiseptic and bandages and gauze and crouches to set to work patching rafael up (treat injury 17). ]

1/2

[romanticidal]

[ she actually does an expert job of cleaning the blood off, pulling out the bullets and applying bandages, and she'd find rafael watching her openly a few times, with wordless gratitude in his eyes ]

[borrowedheaven]

Well, you guys are right about one thing. I don't think I can go back to the club this time. Not for awhile at least. [ she frowns, folding her arms against her chest as she slides into a chair ] But I don't think you can blame me for not leaping at the chance to go visit NOVA.

[slay]

Believe me, we're not excited about it either. [ she looks up at rafael with an uncomfortable expression, contextually explained by their knowledge of jade's heritage and what nova's big shots want with that. ] And we don't. Blame you. We know how much we're asking of you. But we also know that we can protect you if you agree, and I think you know that by now too. [ diplomacy 27 ]

[borrowedheaven]

I don't know that you really do know. [ her lips press together tightly ] But fine. I'll play along - under 2 conditions.

One: I want to lie low until the show. I'm not going to the NOVA building. If they want me for a concert, I'll deliver a concert. And in the meantime, none of them see me.

Two: I want someone I can trust to stay with.

[ her eyes dart to raf and then back to buffy ] Descant.