CHAPTER TWO ♔ a sigh escapes from heaven and worlds end

[savemyself]

♬ The Dream Within - Lara Fabian

WHO || Rafael Giovanni, 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 TWO: Following the traumatic and tragic events of Finnick and Rafael's concert, our heroes are taken to be interrogated at the police station
WHERE || Concert Hall > Chicago Police Department, Chicago, IL
WHEN || July 3rd, 2013 [ forward dated]
HOW || Actionspam

Nothing is okay.

What was meant to be the Knights' triumphant collaborative effort to cut off Chad Becksworth's bid for total control of NOVA Records, allowing them to follow the trail elsewhere, has descended into chaos. Rafael's songs triggered some kind of reaction in Jade that allowed her to regain her lost memories, only to have their reunion cut tragically short by the actions of a hitman who took her hostage on stage, demanding her necklace. While Myri and Violet attempted to convince him that the necklace did not lie with her, Jade signaled to Rafael that she meant to utilize the distraction to break free - but things went out of control and Rafael's bullets struck Jade instead. The Knights felled the hitman, as the world watched, and Rafael begged a distraught and enraged Des to end his life. Meanwhile, a mysterious figure that only Buffy & Spike could see assisted Myrilandel in healing Jade enough to hang on for a little time more...

Time for people to say goodbye.

In the meantime, the police have arrived, arresting Rafael, Archer, and Des (or attempting to), and preparing Jade to be taken to the hospital. Everyone else is being ordered to head outside to be taken down to the station for questioning. It's a hectic scene, but people can finally snatch a few moments amid the chaos to try to make sense of what just happened...

Comments

[slay]

Good. You can give him one for me.

[ because she's too strong to deck anyone for being an idiot unless it's spike or des, probably. she glances away, bitter and trying to disguise her emotions all at once. she takes a deep breath, downs another gulp of des' mystery alcohol that the bartender is filling them up on yay. ]

[nothingsodivine]

I can, I will. [He holds up his drink.] Cheers, Blondie.

[slay]

Cheers.

[ she holds up her glass and finishes it off, pulling a face and gagging once she slams the glass down. ]

God, that is foul.

[nothingsodivine]

[JUST CASUALLY SWIGGING. NO BIG DEAL.] You think that's bad? There's a cajun place in New Orleans that serves Bloody Marys so strong, they'll give you a mustache.

[slay]

You might have better luck making that sell with Spike.

[ get it blood marys wow she's hilarious lAUGH DAMMIT. ]

[nothingsodivine]

[Des laughs, but it's not because it was funny.] You don't have to try so hard.

[slay]

Yeah, I do.

[ she gives him a warm look, but in front of des it's obvious it's fraying at the edges, which for the most part she doesn't dare show around the rest of the team. she feels compelled to be strong for them, because as much as this aches, she knows it's going to get better. it can't get worse. she needs to be strong because right now she knows that nobody else is, and she needs to tough it out and be that for them.

somehow, she just intuitively adopts that as her responsibility. ]

[nothingsodivine]

No, you don't. I'm doing it because that's what I do. You're doing it because you think if you lose it, all those people upstairs are going to think you can't hack it. It's a good way to go crazy.

[slay]

I'm not trying to prove anything about myself, Des. I'm doing this because if I lose it, then who's gonna be there for all those people upstairs? Who's gonna be there for any of us?

[ myri, admittedly, has been surprisingly strong through all of this, but here's the thing; buffy has an ingrained need to protect her. myri shouldn't have to be the strong one. she shouldn't have to carry all of these people while feeling all of their pain as if it's her own. ]

[nothingsodivine]

Maybe nobody really needs to be strong for anyone else. It's a hell of a lot of pressure to put on a person. [He shakes his head and goes back to his drink.] After awhile, they start thinking you're something you can't be all the time. And you get to a point where all you have is being that.

[He thinks about his conversation with Jade on the balcony all that time ago.] She must have gotten tired of it, too.

[slay]

How else are we supposed to protect the people we love from this?

[ love. the words tastes strange in her mouth. she swallows. talking about love and death in the same breath. maybe she wasn't wrong about the similarities between herself and rafael. ]

[nothingsodivine]

Do you want the guy who counts his birthdays in millenniums to answer that?

[slay]

Millenia, huh? Is this the part where you tell me that you don't have people you love because you got sick of losing them? Because I wouldn't have believed that before tonight, and I think you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who believes it now.

[nothingsodivine]

I wasn't gonna say that, because I'm not a cliche.

[The truth is... much worse.]

[slay]

Wow me with your unclichéd life, Desmond Descant.

[nothingsodivine]

[He holds up two fingers again. The bartender is very annoyed he keeps ordering like a cliche barhopper so he finds this whole talk of cliche really hilarious.]

Guy like me gets a rep for being a goddamn hero. Guns blazin', all that crap. It's nice, you know? People respond to that sort of thing and it's good for business. Except my hero bone ain't connected to my brain. In case you missed it, I nearly deafened a bunch of innocent bystanders because I didn't wanna waste bullets. The problem with people expecting you to be better than you are is that you have to think before you act, micromanage every little plan against how many people are going to get hurt. And I can't do that, because I would go mental, because no matter what I did or how much I planned to keep people from getting hurt, people would get hurt.

You don't need a few thousand years to see that, but it helps to make you figure the system ain't shit. You can't think in those terms. You do what you can and you don't guilt yourself about it.

[A beat.] And, okay, the less you care about, the less you worry about your own pigheaded machismo getting people hurt. Maybe I'm a little cliche.

[slay]

No wonder you won't join the Knights.

[ yeah that's all she has to say about that, because it's all good food for thought that buffy needs to consider as she grows into the kawaii natural leaderchan she is. she can't dodge that - it's in her blood. but she can try to consider these things to be a better one, at least. ]

[nothingsodivine]

Wynn thinks it's a piss-poor excuse. But that's how it is. This is the most I've played well with others in awhile.

[slay]

I don't think it is. I think it's just ... who you are. Some people thrive having to do that. Some people can handle the responsibility, and others just don't want to deal with it. That doesn't mean there's something wrong with you, or that you're making excuses.

[nothingsodivine]

Is this your way of telling me that being pathologically irresponsible is no reason to tell you you can't take responsibility for everything?

[slay]

Caught onto that, didja?

[ her nose crinkles with amusement. ]