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

[graveflowers]

[Huff huff huff. That isn't exactly what she meant, okay. But whatever, she is apparently Usain Bolt when pressed because she just sprints backstage like the tiny goddess of speed. Speed on speed. Sorry Buffy, it's fairly obvious she isn't listening -- single minded to a fault. She skitters over wires and around people, though it's nice of the ones not moving to not get in her way (dex 18). Nice in a creepy way. Half way there!]

[bigbad]

The demon vanished before the lights came back on! No clue if we're facing one or not!

[That seems like important intel before everyone shows up and can't find Orlando Bloom. Either way, it seems likely they'll be up against something demonic, and he and Buffy are the experts there. Spike's sprinting on past Buffy to the stage and.... smoke. That's... great. He can't see anything.]

[themuscle]

[ as spike makes a beeline for the stage, a huge figure suddenly blocks his path, rearing up in front of him like something out of a bad cartoon. the looming stagehand exhales and smoke rolls out his nostrils... and spike's earlier spot check means he can definitely see the thing's reptilian yellow eyes, as the hulking brute reaches out and slams his hands against spike's chest, knocking him backwards a few feet so hard that it feels like he walked into a truck. (atk 21, dmg... 14) ]

[graveflowers]

[It would probably be morally not cool to enter herself in the Olympics right? 'cause she is a gold medalist right now. Instead of running through some plastic ribbon a la Roger Bannister while Chariots of Fire plays inspirationally around them though she just runs... into the door. Hey honey, she's home.]

[slay]

[ with a dex 19, buffy easily navigates the backstage area and sprints out to where spike is, following him as closely as she can - but he's faster, and he beats her there by enough of a margin that she witnesses the hulking monsterchan attack him.

luckily the smoke is only barely creeping at the area they're at of the stage, which allows buffy the opportunity to run up and slide between spike and the big guy, springing upward to catch his chin in an uppercut (atk 27, dmg 39). ]

[savemyself]

[ buffy's attack sends the behemoth staggering back against the wall that curves out to form the wing on this side, and there's a tremendous crashing noise as he disappears into the smoky haze. however, they all got good enough spot checks to see that he's not the only one who was 'guarding' the stage area - and the three massive other 'stagehands' slowly lumber closer to them on either side.

up on the top balcony, isabella is straining to see the stage, but seems torn when she looks over and discovers it's just her and dawn up here. she takes a handfan out of her purse and snaps it open, revealing that it has deadly spikes on each end. she looks to dawn: ]

Are you armed?

[65]

[ finnick is aware of everything going on around him, but it's like it's all happening in in slow motion and underwater. loud noises. myri, finnick — find burt. burt is not myri, nor is he on team failboat (which would have given him a little bit of priority, at least.) he actually doesn't find burt as appalling as the rest of them seem to (maybe he's just become numb to it after constantly being in his presence for that last year), but not enough to put his neck on the line for him. the pragmatic, survivalist part of him doesn't rear its head very often, but it's here now.

so, as everyone starts fleeing in different directions, he stays put and looks down at myri.]

Let's leave. Pretend we didn't find him. [he almost punctuates that with "he'll be fine" but who fucking knows with burt.]

[notaroundme]

[She's about to go after Vi when she realizes that she's...going the wrong way. Before she has time to shout after her she's already off and running, and everyone else has gone their separate ways and she's...torn.

Finally, though, she does what she's told. She's worried about the two female knights, and Buffy told her to go so...

She takes of (dex 20 total) back toward the lower balcony, hoping they're there.]

[isisagent]

[Archer begins to head backstage to see what the commotion is all about, still pretty oblivious to what's going on.]

Stupid fucking gogg-Gauh![He exclaims as he slips and nearly falls flat on his ass in his own mushy-song inspired vomit.]

[He shakes his head, and wonders what could make this concert any worse, before continuing to walk backstage, guns drawn just in case some freaking stage hand gives him an excuse to vent some frustration.]

[nothingsodivine]

[Des, because he knows Buffy and Spike are powerhouses and he is a skinny bastard with a revolver, ducks into a storage room as soon as he finally catches up and finds himself surrounded by equipment and gets a brilliant plan. He fucks with the mics a bit (disable device 17) and an earsplitting SCREEEEEEEECH emanates from the speakers.

And Des is okay, because he got a 22 fort save.]

[shootfirst]

[ elena walks out onto the lower balcony just as des' crazy feedback bomb goes off. kat barely makes the save (fort 15), hands clapping to her ears, as she shouts: ] SonuvaBITCH! [ she manages to remove one hand long enough to dot the air with a finger and say: ] Protectis. [ and gives herself a +1 to saves because fuck you des ] What the fuck?!

[themuscle]

[ the feedback causes the remaining bruiser to buffy's right to groan and lose his round as he fails his save and sits there in brain punching misery.

as for the other two, hey remember when des thought they were his favorite snake people?

a little left of center. which becomes readily obvious when the two others open their mouths and breathe fire at buffy and spike. (37 damage, reflex save 19+ will half it to 18 damage) if spike fails his reflex save, he also... catches on fire. the dice love setting spike on fire, i guess. (unsure) ]

[nosdacariad]

[ there's a pause before the door violet ran into opens very gingerly and mark looks in. if possible, he looks even more frazzled than before, completely pale and hesitant, as if he doesn't want to see what's on the other side of the door. it does, however, seem to surprise him when it's violet. he also seems oblivious to what go on inside. ] ... Are you alright?

[rationalizes]

[ gar was looking out over the balcony, waiting for the smoke to clear with her gun drawn, and she manages the sound just fine, but turns to see elena as her ears start bleeding out and looks horrified. ] Elena!

[starfucker]

[ and archer comes backstage on this side to discover burt, hunkering down beside a camera crew watching the screens light back up, and he looks up as the spy approaches. and then double takes. ] You! What the fuck are you doing shooting fucking guns at my fucking concert? People are shitting themselves out there!

[witchwoman]

[As her teammates scatter to comply with Buffy's orders, Myri doesn't hesitate to move to do the same. But Finnick's words stop her in her tracks. She looks up at him with honest confusion.]

...How- [Her words are caught off abruptly by the feedback over the speakers. Despite a sharp wince, she manages to duck and cover her ears in enough time to avoid any damage to her hearing. Once the noise has passed, she steps back.]

You want to leave? But... Finnick these are our friends. Okay, maybe not Burt, but... I'm the only healer here. I can't leave them. I won't. [A lump forms in her throat as she realizes that sometimes love isn't as easy as she imagined it to be. Sometimes the things you love most pull you in two different directions and it's only when pressed that you can truly decide the sort of person that you are.]

I'm going to find Burt, and then the others. If you want to go, then go. [And before she can let her OWN emotions overwhelm her for the first time of the evening, she heads off to find Burt. In the chaos of the night and the way she's fighting not to cry, she's only going to get herself lost, though (search 6).]

[bigbad]

[OW OW OW FUCK THIS IS NOT SPIKE'S DAY. He doesn't fall over at least (balance 18), but he screams in pain from the fire and shrugs off the burning jacket, smacking at the flames (reflex 20). At least he's gotten it out, yay! But not before taking 9 damage from the fucking fire. He turns towards the lizard that set him on fire and growls, fangs sliding out because NOW HE'S REALLY PISSED. And has his sights set on the creature that can hurt him most. GENIUS. Buffy please save him before he dies horribly.]

[watcherjunior]

[ It's just the two of them up in the balcony. Dawn looks over in time to see one impressive fan being snapped open. That's definitely not something you pick up in a little souvenir shop. She can't help but look a little sheepish when Isabella asks if she's armed. ]

No. Uh.. yeah, no. [ Good going, Sir Dawn. She's just about to give a lame excuse when there's a screech of feedback. She winces, her hands covering her ears as if it would block out the sound. Given that she's near a speaker, not so much. She can't hear anything aside from a loud ringing in her head. ]

[witchwoman]

[As Myri hurries in search of Burt, she realizes that she doesn't know this area well at all. This is certainly not where she had intended to go (or is it?), but moving forward is the only thing she can think to do. She stills her steps, slowing down long enough to take a few deep breaths and regroup. She orients herself based off her earlier perspective from the balcony and has a much better sense of her surroundings now. She starts off again, this time with a better plan in mind (search 18).

There's a door. She walks towards it with determination, but upon opening it, realizes that it leads to the auditorium. Panic hits her in a wave, causing her to hesitate, then pain... so much pain. She clutches her head as it throbs in sympathy, but after gritting her teeth, she presses on. She keeps as close to the stage as possible, trying to put distance between herself and any of the people left who aren't bolting for the door.]

[rationalizes]

[ all gar does is move to elena's side, and grab her arm, looking her over with concern, and then glancing back at kat ] Kat! Did you bring any potions?

[graveflowers]

[Is she... Does she look alright? She gapes at Mark a second before she shakes her head. She doesn't have time to worry about why he is so pale and ruffled and surprised.]

No, I am not. Shit has hit the fan so fucking hard I wouldn't be surprised to see a god damn ghostly apparition waiting to cart his new soon to be dead friends off to the underworld. So table your family drama and get your ass in here because we're gonna need your fucking help. Let's go.

[savemyself]

[ isabella seems unaffected by the loud noise b/c she's a boss. instead she simply purses her lips together tightly, looks back towards the stage, as if considering, and then sighs: ] Then you should stay close. Come, let us check on those below. [ and she moves to the staircase to head down to the lower balcony ]

[65]

[ he doesn't move fast enough to cover his ears, and everything myri says to him is blocked out by a loud, metallic ringing followed by dizziness and nothing. it's a sharp, intense pain, like someone slammed an ice pick through his skull. all of this doesn't really do anything to make him feel less panicked. ]

What?

[ apparently asking "what" just makes myri abandon him. as she tries to walk away, he trails after her and yells her name louder than he intends to bc he can't really … scale how loud he's being rn. ]

Myri! Myri!!

[notaroundme]

[Moments after she makes it to the balcony, the room explodes into sound, and it's all she can do not to just pass out on the spot (fort save crit fail).

Elena's hands reach for her ears as she crumples to her knees, and her head is filled with a screeching buzzing noise even as she feels warm wetness against her palms. Tears spring into her eyes and she yells out, but she can't even hear her own voice to know if she's screaming or not.

Gar's beside her moments later, and through the dizziness she can see her lips moving, but there's no sound, just that constant roaring in her head.]

[isisagent]

[Years of firing loud guns have given Archer a rather serious case of Tinnitus, and this feedback bomb is no match for his built-up resistance (Nat 20 Fort).]

God Damnit Burt. There's no time for your bitching!

[Archer grabs Burt by the arm and starts dragging him toward the stage]