knightsoflegend | CLOSED ♔ don't know what the country's coming to

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CLOSED ♔ don't know what the country's coming to

WHO || Rafael, Des, Buffy, their best pal in the world
WHAT || An unexpected incident
WHERE || Rome
WHEN || June 7th, 2014
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread.

Who knows how long unconsciousness has them all swallowed in its grip. But when it finally allows them to resurface, they'd notice the smooth motion of a car indicating they're... still riding in a vehicle. A wis check of 14+ might recognize it's a different limo, however, and it doesn't take a wisdom check to recognize that they are all crammed together on the same side of the seat now. With... hands cuffed to the seat between their legs.

Across from them, a large figure sits grinning manically... wearing a familiar gray cassock. Oh hi. :)

A single glance out the window at the bustling city outside is enough to recognize that is sure as shit ain't London. And Anderson will be quick to clear that up for y'all, waving one hand at the view.

"Well, now. I hope you all enjoyed your rest. Let me be the first t'bid ye welcome... to Rome."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[DO YOU TWO NEED A ROOM OR SOMETHING? Maybe it's the fact that he has a boyfriend in England who is probably going wtf or maybe it's because he just played gay chicken with a priest the size of a buick who just wanted to rearrange his brain, BUT HE CAN FEEL THE HOMO IN THE AIR TONIIIGHT.

or not. he crosses his arms over his chest and raises an eyebrow.]

Secretly alive. And stalking you hard enough to know you were here. You didn't exactly have time to update your tour website with "Surprise trip to the Vatican," Fluffy.

[He's not even being judgey. He's just saying. Stalker behavior.]

I think the words Des is looking for are “thank you.”

[ buffy shoots him a look. uh, this guy saved our asses, and he knows rafael, let’s give him some breathing room for explaining himself. it’s the agent of azrael part she’s more concerned with. maybe because she’s friends with people like spike, so stalking feels normal. homey, even. looking back at vittorio, she tilts her head. ]

But he's not the only one wondering how you found us.

[ he glances between them, nodding his gratitude for their... gratitude idk. a+ tagging. i'm wide awake. ]

I've never been the kind of man to say he believes much in luck, but I'll admit, I don't have much of a better explanation for it.

Some of my... associates monitor Iscariot activity here and there throughout the city, and they happened to see you all being transported into the limo that took you to the Vatican. [ his gaze travels back to raf ] They recognized you, Rafael, and promptly brought that news to me.

And you... came to save me? After-- [ he stops himself, just barely ]

I am surprised you did not leave me there to die.

[Des sticks his tongue in his cheek awkwardly and glances down at his feet.

That's it. That's the tag.]

Again with the shock not adequately expressing the gratitude levels going on over not being flayed to death.

[ good thing buffy is here wow. despite her insistence on STOP BEING SO APPALLED AND JUST BE HAPPY, JESUS, she's ... still pretty suspicious of vittorio. he and des showed up at the same time, and with no idea that azrael was actually at the vatican in person, she has to figure she was using vittorio to act—after all, blah blah, rules, blah. it seems less likely with this connection, but ... his story just seems to good to be true. happy coincidence? really? (sense motive nat 20.) ]

Why are you associates monitoring Iscariot? [ she'll wonder about what happened that makes rafael think he's not worthy of saving later. it's great that he has friends and all, but it's kind of secondary. ]

You've apparently seen what they're capable of. Someone has to protect people from the fanatics. [ buffy actually gets... 100% trustworthy vibes off this guy. he seems entirely without guile, tbh. just... telling it like it is.

his attention is still on raf tho. ]

If these two were captured alongside you, should I assume they ... know quite a bit about you, Rafael?

They know everything. [ he flinches, eyes flitting to buffy's before sliding to the ground ] ... Almost everything.

[ dis face. ] Well. I can see where some stories might be difficult to share with your new friends. [ it's said with a small degree of wry humor, but he goes on: ] It doesn't matter how things ended between us, Rafael.

We have always been as brothers. And you don't abandon family.

[ aca-scuse me?

it’s kind of a slap in the face, actually, that buffy settles on trusting vittorio, firmly believing that he’s got their best interests at heart, only to turn and spot rafael’s second-guessing his own honesty. her head tilts just slightly, lips parting, jaw slack as her tongue presses to the inside of her cheek to keep her from saying something stupid.

her eyes search his as they drop, wondering exactly how bad this can be that it’s worse than maxwell insinuating that rafael also flayed people to death. yeah, ok, blah blah extremists, but jesus fucking christ she kind of feels like the brains blowing out portion of this evening reinforced some truth to that yo.

given the context, friends manages to slip under her skin, too. since new york, she’d told herself it was just this complicated middle ground that didn’t fit nicely into relationship boxes. they were closer than that. she loved him. but he’s keeping secrets, just like des, and she feels rebuffed, like she’s just bounced off an invisible wall that she didn’t even know was still surrounding him. ]

Almost. [ she repeats it, as if to affirm that she’d heard and processed the word. maybe it’s the veil ripping her own life from her, but it’s hard to know they know everything about her and she—

… definitely neglected to tell rafael about the demon assassins. okay. maybe she can reserve judgment for a second. (no jk she’s really genuinely busy being a hypocrite. THAT PROBABLY WASN'T AS BIG A DEAL AS THIS IS THOUGH OK. SHE IS JUSTIFIED ... ISH.) she turns to look at vittorio, trying to decide how she feels about this development. ]

Not everything is easy to explain.

[Hi, I'm Desmond Descant and I'll be your devil's advocate for the evening. Either he always assumed that Rafael was keeping more secrets under his fluffy hair or he's just not surprised by it.] And the truth don't matter like it ought to, right, Fluffy?

[ raf spares both of them half a glance, lips pursed, but then after a moment he closes the space between them and shares a sudden bro-hug with vittorio, clapping him on the back hard. he looks v emotional ok. he manages to say, voice a bit thick: ] How?

[ vittorio returns the hug, a distant look in his eye as he responds. ] I know you, Rafael. I could see it coming from miles away.

The moment they started to fall, while the panic set in among them, I put two and two together. By the time Maria was hit--

[ he shakes his head as he pulls away, one hand on rafael's shoulder as he looks at him gravely. ] I knew I was next.

I took... precautions. Hired someone I trusted to check in on me daily. Gave them a key to enter, and explicit instructions what to do if they came upon my body. Provided them the payment in advance.

I was rezzed within a week. And certainly didn't advertise the fact, knowing you were still out there.

… Wait.

[ not interrupt this happy huggy moment but … this is sounding suspiciously like— ]

I'm sorry, some of us were never part of the political assassin club. [ was that said sharply? oops. ] Who killed you?

[ she thinks she knows the answer, based on … well. the levels of homo happening right here, and rafael’s incredulity, but she doesn’t want to sound like a huge dick by asking specifically and then being wrong. ]

[ rafael drags his gaze over to buffy's, an apology in his eyes. ]

... I did.

He was my best friend, and I killed him.

[AHAHAHAHAHA.

Des swallows hard and while he kinda looks like he wants to nope out of the conversation, he's trying to be stoic... as he awkwardly scratches the back of his head.]

Was that a... personal choice, Rafael?

[ 8| sobbing ]

... Si. Entirely so.

[ knowing the answer doesn’t prepare her for hearing it. buffy’s mouth opens as she exhales tightly, eyes shutting. she feels tears moisten her eyelashes and she presses her lips together to fight it back. this is not a good day.

they were just supposed to go to the airport, he was supposed to be back in chicago, or l.a., or wherever the hell else burt has him going, and later in the week she’d call and they’d smile and she’d pretend that vi wasn’t dying and that she didn’t have plans to go flying into a trap on the andres isle. maybe she’d pretend she was a barista, and tell him about her boring job, and her boring customers, and laugh about how neither of them could ever really picture it.

instead, they’re in a darkened church and rafael’s being forced to recant the murder of his best friend. instead, she gets to tell herself that he was a different person, and he’s not anymore, even though she just watched him execute an already incapacitated woman. this isn’t about her. this isn’t about her, it’s about rafael, and she hates herself for getting so wrapped up in how much it stings to hear because she should be more worried about how it kills him to say it and how hard it is to see vittorio again, knowing what he did. ]

I don’t wanna hear this.

[ she holds up her hands, swallowing, and takes a step back. ]

We should go. You two obviously have some catching up to. Or — Or Des, stay, make sure they’re okay. [ make sure rafael doesn’t shoot his best friend in the face again :’) ] But, I—I can’t — [ not tonight. not after everything she’s already been dragged through for them, after what she’d told des as they entered the church, after how guilty and horrible she’d felt that she couldn’t protect them. ]

Buffy, please. [ he turns to look at her more fully now, and it's clearly killing him to say any of this, but also killing him to watch her reaction. ] I--

I did not know how to ever recount my greatest crime, where to even begin. But I -- I have never wished to hide this from you. You should know. Everything. [ there's a silent plea there, and fear in his eyes.

know everything so you can decide for yourself whether your words to him so long ago hold weight now: that nothing he could tell her would change how she felt about him, how she looked at him. it's pretty obvious that he's not so sure that's true. ]

[Des runs his hand along his jaw and grabs Buffy with his other to keep her from moving. Hilariously, he also looks like he wants to run the opposite direction, so by forcing her to stay, he's giving himself some strength to stay, as well.]

Hear him out, Blondie.

[ buffy tries to yank her arm away from des, and it’s useless, and that only serves to upset her further, expression contorting briefly with misery at the reminder. she shakes her head, raising her voice as she instinctively snaps back, ] You don’t get to tell me what to do. [ the jab has an undeniable barb in the tone she delivers it with, a sort of “us or them” attitude that lumps des with rafael. ]

[ she deflates, softening, braving a glance in rafael’s direction. the sorrow and self-loathing, the begging, fearful look that she sees there, is what makes her relent. she never wanted to be the cause of that look in his eyes. all she’s ever wanted is to be his safety, to draw him away from this and help him see that he’s better than it. tears well in her eyes, brought on by her warring emotions. when she finally manages to a reply, it’s a question, strangled out. ]

Why?

[ her meaning is clear: not why should she listen, because that's never been a question. she will listen because she loves him, and as much as she’s wanted to in the past and even now, she can’t stop, and because she can't imagine doing anything else. no, it’s the spurning, incomprehensible demand of someone who cannot reconcile this deed with the man who stands before her. ]

[ rafael is too busy looking painfully torn up inside as he stares at buffy for a sec so it's actually vittorio who speaks up. ]

Because we betrayed him. Or he believed that we had.

[ ♬ walk away from the sun - seether

that finally grabs rafael's attention and he turns to stare at vittorio again, looking overwhelmed with emotion. and then he on he goes. ]

You have heard, how Jade wished for me to step away from the work I was doing. How some of our friends saw things differently, did not wish to lose me, and sought to stop this from happening.

Vittorio and... several others of our circle were the ones who worked to frame Eterna for what I had done. Because of them she could never be free - she would either be caught and suffer for the crimes I had committed, live forever running from such a fate, or-- [ he tosses a grim look at des ] Take her mother's offer, to join her at the Gates of the Moon.

You already know what she chose. What you do not know is how I... reacted, when she was gone, knowing who was responsible for the choice she had had to make.

[Wow this conversation gets better and better. Des would side-eye Vittorio over there but he did the same thing EXCEPT NO WAIT. HE WAITED UNTIL JADE WAS ALREADY DEAD. SIDE-EYEING THE FUCK OUT OF YOU HOMIE.]

I can see where that might provoke an extreme reaction.

[ any surprise winks out of her expression in an instant the moment jade’s name is invoked. of course it comes down to jade. for once, buffy begins to understand how isabella could love rafael but hate her so. it’s not the first time buffy has realized that his feelings for her could sometimes hover near the toxic, but it’s the first time it’s actually made her nauseous.

sometimes, it’s entrancing, to realize he could love someone so much, with his whole being. not now. now, it just looks like a disease that consumed him, burning away who he could be, who he was. the man he was without jade wasn’t the happy man he’d pretended to be in italy with her, wasn’t the man he’s become now. he was a husk, hollowed out and misshapen by something that called itself love, but only destroyed everything it touched. jade, rafael, vittorio—god knows how many others that rafael had once called friends, had once fought beside.

that’s not love. that’s tragic. ]

I can guess.

[ buffy answers, turning to look at des when he speaks. she can remember, what both she and rafael did to him after the trial. she can remember crumbling and lashing out because of what des had done to hurt rafael, to the woman he’d loved. she’d lost control of herself, seen a traitor where he’d been her friend. she remembers how it was only myri’s screaming that had stopped them from sending des to hell, however temporarily. if myri hadn’t been there … ]

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