CHAPTER FINALE ♔ darling can't you see it's now or never

[romanticidal]

♬ Astronaut (A Short History of Nearly Nothing) - Amanda Palmer ft. Zoe Keating

WHO || Rafael Giovanni, Eterna Jade, Burt Becksworth, Isabella Alessandro, Finnick Odair, Myrilandel de Tanos, Buffy Summers, Spike, Elena Gilbert, Dawn Summers, Desmond Descant, Jeanne Gar, Kat Samcelot, Mark Sandazhard, Violet Fiore, Sterling Archer
WHAT || CHAPTER ONE FINALE: Rafael Giovanni & Finnick's televised international concert debut
WHERE || A music hall in Chicago, IL
WHEN || July 3rd, 2013 [ forward dated]
HOW || Actionspam

The hour is finally upon our heroes, to learn whether their crazy plan to invest in making Finnick and Rafael international superstars under Burt Becksworth's management will pay off, and keep control of NOVA Records out of the hands of Chad Becksworth and his sinister compatriots. Now, as the Knights finish taking their seats in the balconies directly overlooking the stage, the concert goes live, broadcasting around the world, to where even other members of the Knighthood in London can gather to watch.

The camera pans across the endless sea of gathered, curious fans, who shake their arms wildly for their two seconds of fame, and then zooms in on a blonde figure on one corner of the stage, where she stands ready with a microphone: Buffy Summers.

[ the action of this post will be continually propelled by the interspersed musical numbers performed by finnick and rafael. each musical number will be up for a short amount of ooc time, in which players are free to create mini-thread responses directly to that song comment. these can be for internal reflection, to make commentary to the neighbors seated in their rows, for backstage convos for those involved in the program, or for 'host' commentary between some songs by archer and kat. threads that result from these responses should be kept short and sweet, as each song is only 3 to 5 minutes long, which doesn't leave a lot of time for in depth conversations. ideally, by the time the next 'number' is posted (as a direct response to the last musical number comment), your response threads from the previous number should be considered over and done with, and you can continue anything going on in them as a new mini-thread under the most recently posted song. in order to keep track of when things are rolling on to the next song, I highly encourage everyone to please track this entire post. ]

Comments

4/4

[romanticidal]

[ as the song ends, they're all but tilting their foreheads together, but as the wild applause swells up, rafael lifts a hand to cup her cheek and kisses her passionately, her smile never dropping as she returns his embrace. when the kiss breaks, he draws her close, and she wraps her arms around him tightly. ]

[bigbad]

[Spike's mouth drops open. and only a little part of him is doing a victory dance okay Buffy still probably doesn't want to bone him He looks over at Isabella.]

...I don't remember that in the program.

[savemyself]

[ isabella is busy staring in absolute and complete horror/anger down at the stage as the two of them make out for entire world to see. her response comes in spanish, and it's not very suitable for print in any language. ]

[bigbad]

[Yeah, he doesn't have to know a damn thing about Spanish to get the point there. He'll even add his own opinion.]

...bugger.

[nothingsodivine]

[Des makes it halfway through before he decides he's 100% done with hanging out backstage like a dejected fanboy, and starts to head for the lobby to get some goddamn air.

Next time Liam puts him on the scent of something, he's telling him to go fuck himself.]

[graveflowers]

[Vi had used Burt talking to the orchestra as a cue to flee, running backstage to use the ladies so... she misses basically half the song. She comes back into the wings just in time to catch Des stalk off and then the staring into each other's souls and the kiss. And she is fucking confused.

So she turns and sprints after Des.]

Holy hell, what the fuck happened?

[nothingsodivine]

[Des keeps walking until he reaches the door that leads out into the hall that will, hopefully, take him to the bar.] Rafael put the whammy on her- brought her memories back. She remembers who she is now. Happy endings all around.

[witchwoman]

[Myri leans into Finnick gratefully, finding it easier to focus her thoughts when she has more contact with him. His reaction to all of this are just as confusing as the rest, but if she can keep herself zeroed in on one of them rather than all of them, it will make things easier.

As the next song starts, She turns to watch, unable to do anything but that right now. The rest of the emotions from her teammates are shadowed by the outpouring of love and joy coming from that stage. This is saying something, as she's not especially close to either of them, but the whole audience is caught up in their love story. None of them know what the two had gone through, but they can feel it now, and it amplifies everything for Myri.

She knows she should worry about Buffy, about Des, about all the confusion the rest of them must be feeling, but she's caught up in the whirlwind of it and she can't stop. A laugh escapes her, tears forming in her eyes. She covers her mouth with one hand, but still it does not completely hide the smile that's formed on her face.]

[65]

[yeah well myri is lucky that finnick is preoccupied with watching their performance and not really paying attention to myri's fangirling. he doesn't let go of her, but his eyes are entirely fixed on the stage. a slight frown has set in on his face — which is really a scowl for him considering how good he is at keeping his emotions on lock.

the whole thing hits a bit of a hot button for him as it is. when he thinks of memories being manipulated, he thinks of katniss and what tia had to do to her after she was traumatized on a mission. he couldn't believe that katniss would be willing to subject herself to something like that — but he didn't know katniss anymore, did he? and that hurt. with jade, she had no choice in neither the losing nor the regaining of her memories. it just leaves him feeling really unsettled. unsettled, and angry for jade's sake that rafael would purposely do something so selfish just to fulfill his needs, no matter how ~romantic~ the whole thing may have seemed in a certain light. if he wasn't planning on retiring he'd consider composing a few strongly worded passive-aggressive songs of his own.]

[shootfirst]

[ kat, standing near to finnyri, looks a little grossed out, like maybe she could join archer in team vomit ] Does he really have to stick his tongue down her throat to make his point? I mean really? [ but then she seems to notice myri's reaction ] ... You actually like this mushy crap, don't you?

[65]

[at that point finnick looks down and sees myri all fangirly in his arms and is just ... so disapproving. but, unlike her when he was like "aw yeah" to thomas causing an elevator crash, he doesn't peel himself away from her. he just ... becomes even more discontent.]

[notaroundme]

[Elena is completely emotionally torn on this. Because it's so obvious now that these two are so in love, and that this was the way it was supposed to be. On the other, it felt like the other girl, the one that Elena actually kind of knew, no longer existed. Like she'd died and been replaced by someone else. So what was she supposed to feel for that other girl? The one that clearly wanted Des, the one who hadn't wanted her memories?

She feels a little sick about it, because the shades of grey here are intense, and she doesn't know what's right. Maybe none of it is. Maybe either one was.

But what's done is done, now. They'll just have to see what the consequences might be.]

Wow.

[It's the only thing she can think to say, as she grips the broken necklace between her fingers.]

[rationalizes]

[ ♬ into dust - mazzy star

gar stares on in apparent amazement for a moment, before looking over at elena and coughing a bit ] I suppose it might be in poor taste to rejoice for what this could mean for our mission?

[notaroundme]

[Elena tears her eyes away from the happy couple to look towards Gar, the resulting smile on her face holding no actual happiness. Instead, it just looks a little bitter.]

Yeah, I think there will be time for that later.

[She sighs, rubbing at her face. All the emotion flying around is enough to get to anyone.]

[isisagent]

Ho...ly... Christ.
[He notices Vi hasn't returned yet]

Well... It seems my co-host was smart enough to bail at the right time.

...Aaand that bitch took my flask. Great.
[He stares at the empty Martini glass, then back at the impassioned duet... then he stares knowingly at where his guns are tucked into his jacket...]
No! Sterling. You have so much to live for...

Just have to... get through... this... [And then they kiss.]
[Archer just leans over nonchalantly, and pukes. Straightening up, he grabs his empty glass and hurls it backstage *CRASH*. Now he feels a little better.]

[starfucker]

[ a familiar voice echoes from back there following the crash: ] JESUS H. FUCKBALLS. WHO DID THAT? Mother fucker.

[slay]

[ it's never been her.

she's known, of course, but she also knows that there's no possible way rafael has consistently failed his wisdom checks that badly that he didn't realize. he did this, all of this, knowing exactly how she felt. he must've. and he did it when he knew she couldn't budge, couldn't leave and had to watch while it all happened because it was her duty to stick around on this mission.

bile rises in the back of her throat as her eyes remain riveted to the scene on the stage. she ducks her head, covers her mouth with her hand, and takes a deep breath to try and alleviate the weight in her chest once it's ended. there's darkness at the corners of her vision and a numbness spreading over her skin.

she takes a few steps back. ]

I have to - [ she can't finish the sentence. can't come up with a justification, can hardly keep from letting out a sobbed noise as it all slams into her. she turns, raising her hands dismissively and exiting the balcony with haste as she finishes lamely. ] - Be … somewhere else.

[ as she turns to go, barely registering in the fog of her mind, she spots an unfamiliar figure standing off to the side of the balcony, looking as invested as the rest of them. ]

[bigbad]

Maybe. But I doubt it. [Can demons look like people? Mostly he's only seen the ones that looked like creepy bugs. But then again, he's pretty sure vampires are a sort of demon. Even if people can see him.

There's one way to check. He stands up and gauges the distance between his balcony and the one below it where the rest of his team is. He's pretty sure he can make it without attracting too much attention (wis 6). With casual vampire grace, he propels himself off the balcony and down to the one where the rest of his teammates are (jump 27).

And lands right in front of his other teammates with Buffy nowhere to be seen.]

...where's Buffy?

[It occurs to him, a little belatedly, that this display would be really, really hard on her, considering her completely obvious feelings for Rafael.]

Is she okay?

[notaroundme]

[Elena manages to clap her hands over her mouth before she can actually scream. And that necklace sure is still dangling from her fingers. Hi Spike.]

What the hell are you doing!?

[Seriously, why would you even.]

[romanticidal]

[ rafael and jade finally seem to recognize that there's an audience and stuff and draw apart a few feet to turn out to the crowd, who cheers and cheers while everything is going down in the above threads...

but it's just as spike lands on the balcony, startling elena, myri, finnick, kat and gar, while buffy makes her way towards the lobby where des and vi drink...

that the entire building goes dark.

the pitch black is broken rather quickly by cheers turning to terrified screams from audience members who don't understand what's going on, along with some nervous continued applause, as if this must be part of the show. ]

[nothingsodivine]

[AND THEN EVERYTHING WENT DARK.

Des doesn't get to react to Violet's story, because he's sliding off his stool and blinking in the darkness.]

Damn, I hate it when I'm right.

[isisagent]

OH for the love of . . .

Please say this is not an encore...

[notaroundme]

[On heart attack quickly follows another, apparently. Elena's grip tightens around the pendant and she's on her feet quickly thereafter despite the darkness, looking around for any source of light at all to orient herself. An exit sign or an emergency light. Anything.

Because she doesn't like that screaming.]

[65]

[the blackout and all the screaming trigger some kind of ptsd in finnick regarding hunger games and having suddenly everything happen. as his adrenaline spikes, his grip on myri suddenly becomes sort of violent. he also joins elena in the effort to look for sources of light and exits signs. mostly exit signs. because if he finds one he is beelining for it and has no problem swimming through a crazy mob to do so.]

[borrowedheaven]

[ and most everyone converges in the hallway midway between the lobby and the balcony/backstage steps, as the screams increase to a frenzied pitch, thanks to archers gunshots out there. His night goggles are rendered useless pretty readily however, as a whirring noise starts up as a generator kicks in, low lights flickering up in the hallway where the gang can see spike and Elena approaching.

Meanwhile, archer and dawn can see only a stage covered in smoke for now, but it's beginning to disperse slowly... ]