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

[nothingsodivine]

[Des, oblivious to the damage he is wrought to the entire fucking theater, is currently making a lasso out of microphone wire (there is still a microphone attached to the actual lasso part) (dex 15). While there's a distraction, he runs out of the closet swinging his makeshift lasso over heard with a sharp whistle to get the attention of the lizard Buffy didn't kick in the face and swings the noose around its neck (atk 24) and then tightens the lasso (str. 18)]

[watcherjunior]

[ The ringing makes her head feel fuzzy. Isabella doesn't seem affected, and doesn't seem to realize that Dawn is. She squints, wishing she had learned to read lips instead of dead foreign languages. She hears nothing of what Isabella says and instead replies, loudly: ] What?

[ The other woman is moving though, and since she has the weapon, Dawn follows, staying close behind her. ]

[hiredgun]

[ ♬ hey man nice shot - filter

meanwhile, all that smoke filling up the stage area has finally dispersed enough that people can begin to see what the hell's been going out there all this time.




... it's not good.

rafael stands on the middle of the stage with both guns drawn, pointed upstage several yards at another figure - a stranger in an expensive suit and tie, sporting dark shades, who's clutching eterna jade in front of himself, the barrel of a gun rammed up flush against her throat beneath her chin.

rafael's expression is grim, entirely cold, but it's possible to see the layer of fear behind his eyes. jade's hands grip the man's forearm in front of her, and she struggles somewhat, causing him to tighten his hold on her and move back another couple feet, dragging her along, cutting off any good angles from the wings that don't put her directly in the line of fire of anyone wanting to plug the bad guy.

he sneers at rafael, and apparently all of them were equally unaffected by des' speaker trick. he yells out*: ] NOBODY MAKES A GODDAMNED MOVE.

[ * (intimidate 26, please make will saves, all those able to... hear.) ]

[shootfirst]

[ with a 20 will save, kat is undaunted, but afraid to disobey... however, she still surreptitiously reaches for her purse and kicks it over to gar on the balcony, since it's got the potion inside. she looks anxiously between elena, gar, and the stage. ]

[nosdacariad]

[ the lassoed behemoth struggles against his bonds, and then roars at des, before taking the entire round to flex, apparently, and snapping the wire from pure muscle power (nat 20...). at least it stalled him for six seconds.

the one buffy kicked in the face staggers away a few steps, then turns and roars at her, raising a hand out of which pop several terrifying claws, which he rakes at her face, but misses widely.

mark is still mostly outside tbh, and doesn't even hear this crazy guy yelling. all his focus, therefore, is on violet, and he hesitates a moment, before drawing his gun and stepping in, asking her insistently: ] What happened?

[bigbad]

Fine.

[But his bluff check of 14 isn't all that convincing when he's pretty clearly charred and bleeding, and even less convincing when he staggers towards her, clearly in pain.

And then there's some asshole pointing a gun at Jade and bloody hell, he's really gonna do it, isn't he, and Spike sure doesn't want that to happen.

So he doesn't move. But he does ready an action to try and grab the fire breathing asshole if someone gets the gun away from that guy.]

[hiredgun]

[ those close to the stage with a listen check of 17 or higher can hear the man's words even as he lowers his voice and addresses them only to the woman he's holding hostage, pressing his gun hard against her, words dripping derision: ]

Alright, you mutt bitch, here's what it's come down to. You had all the chances in the world to say yes, and you just had to keep up the stubborn act. So here's your last shot. [ he hisses the words as he bends her wrist to an awkward, painful angle, looking her over as if frustrated by something. ]

Where is it?

[witchwoman]

[Myri is scared... very scared, but as the man's words reach her, she knows that she has to do something. Jade only just got her memories back. What sort of healer would she be to stand by to watch someone reborn only to die at the hands of this maniac?]

She doesn't have it! [She cries out from her spot in the front row. She holds one hand behind her back, as if whatever he's looking for might be hidden back there.] I do. [Here's hoping that he attributes most of her jitters to the fear (bluff 14)] Let her go.

[rationalizes]

[ meanwhile gar very slowly bends to pick up the potion inside the purse, and then moves to elena's side again to uncork the blue liquid and hold it to her lips. she hears myri's shout and looks back over the railing... and then looks back to elena, her eyes falling and lingering on the necklace still wrapped around elena's knuckles. ] ... Oh dear.

[bigbad]

[NO MYRI THAT IS NOT AN OKAY SUGGESTION. Spike decides this is a good time to move. At the very least, it could distract from Myri and make the scary guy with the gun shoot Spike instead. He hurls himself at the fire breathing lizard man and grabs him hard, wrapping his arms around the monster's neck (atk 32, grapple 32, dmg 21).]

[graveflowers]

[It is good that Vi can't hear or see what is going on. As the other half-goddess in the room she would have gotten really, just thoroughly, insulted by that mutt comment. She does hear Myri though (listen 18) which pulls all her attention away from the flippant answer she was about to give Mark. Although, really, it is the same answer, though muttered under her breathe in nervousness instead of glibness.]

Shit.

[She turns to the stage even though she can't see anything and just sort of lurches forward before she realizes she is moving and edges against the wall, skittering silently forward toward where Burt and Archer are hovering. (Move silently nat 20, hide 23, although considering Spike... she probably doesn't need to try that hard.)]

[slay]

[ with a sense motive of 29, buffy isn't fooled. she sees just how much of a toll it's taken on him as she ducks the attack of the 'stagehand.' she delivers another quick blow via her fist to his face as something occurs to her (nat 20 attack (37 total), 24 dmg - wis 12).

she doesn't get the chance to open her mouth, though, because then comes the booming voice of ben affleck, which intimidates her into shrinking back a little (will save 16). when spike starts moving, her eyes widen. ]

Spike, stop!

[ because what part of don't move or he'll shoot her is hard to process omfg. ]

[borrowedheaven]

[ jade looks out towards myri's voice, most of her fear very effectively contained as she stills in the man's grip. her eyes slide to rafael's and lock there and they seem to be having an unspoken conversation - which prompts her to say nothing to contradict myri.

the guy, meanwhile, casts a suspicious gaze out towards her.

"Show me," he demands, not budging. ]

[savemyself]

[ isabella just stares on from above as gar tends to elena, shaking her head at myri's display ] Foolish girl...

[starfucker]

[ meanwhile, behind archer and burt, the camera crew people whisper out: "We're back up and live. Do you want us to go to standby?" and burt turns around and looks at them like they're insane. ] Standby? Are you fucking kidding me? Keep those cameras rolling, I don't want to miss a goddamn beat. This all needs to be live.

[ it'd... be possible to see the dollar signs rolling in his eyes if he were a cartoon character rn ]

[65]

[finnick's hearing came back, but that didn't lessen the sting of myri ignoring him completely in his ~time of need.~

he sort of sees what's happening to jade, and sees lips moving (will save 8; listen 10). he can't really hear it, but this time it's because his perspective is submerged again. he's paralyzed, and myri playing big damn hero makes it even worse. he was supposed to protect her. he promised. he was supposed to save her, but now all can do is stand stock still and fight the bile rising in the back of his throat. the only reason he hasn't tried to dash back toward the exit is because of her.]

[isisagent]

[Burt - you're so fucking lucky that a)there's bigger fish to fry, and b)you didn't get any blood on Archer's $5,000 suit - or you'd have a hole in your kneecap]

Stay here, Hollywood.

[Archer walks out on stage toward the douchebag with the gun - his hands are in the air, guns dangling from his fingers]

Hey... Buddy. Let's talk this out, ok? If it's the girl you want, I know plenty of great hookers - I'll call them all up. My treat.

[notaroundme]

[Elena is learning about the fact that potions are awesome, because she feels much better. Not great, but the screaming in her head turns to a dull roar, but she still can't actually...hear anything.

That worrisome, but not so much so as the looks on Gar's and Kat's faces.]

What happened? What's going on?

[She feels herself speak, but doesn't hear that either, so she has no idea how loud she spoke at all. It's easy to follow where they glance to, though, and one look at the stage tells her enough.]

Oh my god...

[nothingsodivine]

[mercifully des didn't hear what's going on out there or else he'd do something really stupid. as it stands, when the lizard man snaps his lasso and he's left with a slack wire and all of the confidence drains out of his expression. He doesn't drop the wire though. Instead, he snaps it like a whip and starts making wild man sounds in a blind attempt to confuse it and keep it from going for Spike since he's weak and injured. (Intimidate 19) No one ever said his plans were good.]

[watcherjunior]

[ The ringing finally subsides. In its wake, everything sounds too loud. Her head is still fuzzy, but she can think again. Dawn can see trails of blood from Elena's ears. She should probably be paying more attention to the stage. She should probably be doing a lot of things differently right now. Moving closer, she looks from Elena to Gar. ] What happened?

[shootfirst]

[ Kat grimaces, seeming to suddenly grasp what might be wrong with Elena. She looks to dawn, one eye always on the stage. ] If I had to guess? Chad sent one of his cronies to crash the party. And this time, they're playing hardball.

[nosdacariad]

[ Mark looks as if his heart is in his throat, and he puts a hand on vi's shoulder, as if to keep her from pulling an archer and marching out there. He whispers fiercely: ] Is he nuts?

[ meanwhile, Buffy socks the monster spike has grasped, and he goes limp in the vampires grip. Des' display, miraculously, seems to actually surprise the now free second guy so much that he hesitates for the entire round, as if he can see some true level of crazy in des' eyes. The final beast, deafened and useless until now, roars forward finally, throwing another swipe at Buffy that...also misses. ]

[bigbad]

[Spike gives Buffy an adoring grin as he lets go of the monster, then steps up behind the one that Des is scaring with his.... microphone cord to flank him. He hopes Des isn't dumb enough to actually try to use that thing as a whip, but he did just deafen an entire audience, so who knows. He throws a punch at the back of the monster's head (atk 17, dmg 12 if it hits).]

[hiredgun]

[ he raises his gun instantly to aim at archer's head in warning, never loosening his grip on jade. ] I SAID NOBODY MOVE. [ and then he looks back out at myri, all impatient ] Show me.

[witchwoman]

[Myri's expression flashes with worry as her teammates attempt their own individual distractions. She swallows thickly, glad that his attention is at least divided amongst them, though it might make him all the more dangerous. Using her new found skills in taking on a new persona, she speaks calmly and firmly. (Diplomacy 17)]

We can all get what we want tonight. I hid it back stage. For safe keeping. Let the girl go and I'll show you where. [Unfortunately her nerves are frayed and the lie isn't as convincing. (bluff 9)]