CHAPTER THREE ♔ heaven rain the colors down to form another prize

[romanticidal]

♬ someone like you (acoustic) - brian vander ark

WHO || Rafael, Buffy, Des
WHAT || The OT3 escapes Italy
WHERE || Venice --> etc
WHEN || June 8th
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread.

It's already about ten or eleven in the morning by the time Raf, Buffy, and Des made it to a hotel in Venice and got a couple rooms to crash in for a few hours, since they were running on zero sleep and a lot of adrenaline after their escape from Rome and subsequent barrage of revelations.

A few hours of rest is all they're looking for before they make their way back to London, but they're still cut off from the Knights, thanks to Iscariot taking all their phones.

When Buffy's eyes flutter open after some very, very satisfying sleep, it might take her a moment to realize that she's actually awake. Rafael's face is remarkably close to her own since they're sharing a pillow, and his own eyes are open, studying her face with a thoughtful, fond expression and the shadow of a smile on his cheek. One of his arms is still wrapped around her, and he squeezes her side when he sees she's awake and greets her gently.

"Buongiorno, carina."

Comments

[romanticidal]

I was hoping they might have been put off by the evidence that Eterna was -- well, you know. [ probably shouldn't go around discussing this confidential shit in a hotel hallway ] But it seems not everyone was so convinced. [ down the steps they get, and rafael puts his guns inside his coat pocket as they make it into the lobby, and gestures for des to HIDE THAT SHIT ]

[slay]

[ and suddenly it occurs to buffy that they are the reason most hotels don't take cash. she looks a little sheepish on the way out, keeping step beside her boys. she has no guns to holster, yo. ]

[nothingsodivine]

[YEAH, YEAH, ALL RIGHT. He shoves the gun back into his jacket as he heads out. Be cool, guys. Be cool. It would probably be a lot better if they had a crowd or something to converge into.]

They're gonna start shooting the second we hit the door. [He hisses in Rafael's ear.] What's your exit strategy? Don't get shot.

[Wow. deja vu]

[romanticidal]

They are going to expect us to head up the street in either direction. Likely, if they staked one balcony, they have staked others up and down both ways.

[ he peeks out one window, taking note of the river that runs just outside. ] ... Unless, we do not take either. [ and he points out there where ... a bunch of speedboats are docked. ]

[slay]

... You better know how to drive one of those things.

[ because she doesn't have a better plan. the most useless member of this party rn tbh. ]

[nothingsodivine]

[Des doesn't either, because I... rolled to decide whether or not that's something that has occurred to him to learn in four thousand years and nope. It is not.]

Remember the helicopter? He can do anything.

[He barks a laugh, because this is... definitely one of the craziest fucking situations he's ever found himself in. Kudos, Rafael.]

It's just no fun if we don't get to hotwire something.

[romanticidal]

I can do it. But you will need to keep them off from me while I do so. [ he looks to buffy ] Carina, did you grab the other guns from the room?

[slay]

[ wow buffy helped with that helicopter thank you!! anyway rafael is ... expecting her to have weapons or something now and she just offers a shrug. ]

I left them in the glovebox. I didn't expect a shoot-out at our hotel. [ with a spot 36 she'll glance outside and ... see what her chances of stopping by the car on the way are ... ]

[nothingsodivine]

[Des does the headtilt at Buffy.] All this time you've known him and you don't expect that anymore? I don't know how the guy eats breakfast without getting shot at.

[He loves you, Rafael...]

I've got nine rounds. What're the odds of there being less than ten of these jackasses?

[Maybe he won't miss...]

[romanticidal]

Slim enough that I think we should go for the other weapons. [ sorry des. ] I will cover you to the vehicle, Buffy. [ he digs out the keys to give her ] Go in the passenger side, and then we will all make our way to the boat.

[slay]

[ y a y.

why do the hot ones always have to be vash the stampede.

she holds out a hand for him to drop the keys into, closing her fingers around them and then leaning on the door. ]

On three? [ she doesn't bother waiting for confirmation, just counts down and then BURSTS THROUGH THE DOOR to run for the car. god bless whoever invented remote entry. ]

[nothingsodivine]

[Des has to save his bullets, so he'll just come out from behind Rafael to make sure they have a clear path to the boat.

or not because he crit failed his spot check. SO I GUESS HE'S JUST STARING INTO NOTHING. GET IT TOGETHER, DESCANT.]

[romanticidal]

[ maybe he's blinded by ~the sun~

rafael moves out the door, pulls his guns as he moves behind one of the columns out front, and scans the balconies above as buffy breaks for the car. except... no one actually fires at her?? so there's that. ... they do, however, fire at rafael behind the column. yaaay. one shot breaks off a piece of column right next to his arm, and then another strikes him in the shoulder (5 dmg). ]

[slay]

[ it took all 21 points of her will save to not turn around and fret over rafael getting shot tbh. but buffy makes it to the car, pulls open the passenger door, and digs the guns out of the glovebox. whee. ]

[nothingsodivine]

[Des shakes off his sunblindness thanks to the sound of gunshots and grabs Rafael by the shoulder that's not currently bleeding to haul him away from the pillar to give him some physical cover, because DUDE NO ONE ELSE CAN DRIVE THE BOAT.]

Well, at least they know what they want. [He glances in Buffy's direction. RUN BLONDIE RUN.]

[romanticidal]

[ raf glances down at the injury and shrugs it off ] It is fine. I have had much worse.

[slay]

[ buffy disagrees X( she gets up and shuts the car door, keys pocketed and guns in hand, and uses them to gesture for all of them to run from the boat from their respective positions. as she moves, she levels one of the guns in the direction the gunfire came from and fires off a couple shots (atk 27, 15). assuming the first one hits it does ... 2 damage wow that was not as dramatic as she wanted it to be. if the second hits somehow it's 6 dmg... she hates guns ... ]

[nothingsodivine]

Hah. [That is what Des has to say to that. HAH. HE KNOWS. HE'S BEEN THERE. Doesn't matter. We're running for the boat now. RUNNING, RUNNING.]

[romanticidal]

[ raf moves backwards towards the boat, taking several crack fucking shots up at the snipers since he rolled like a 16, 19, 19, 18 before i even added anything jfc. basically THEY ARE MAKING IT TO THE BOAT, ok. he takes another shot, allowing the others to climb inside, and shoots them a grin. ] What did I tell you, no?

[slay]

[ wow that was super attractive. like really, really attractive. buffy jumps onto one of the boats and fires two more shots (atk 22 dmg 3, atk 21 penetration dmg 19 about time gurl). ]

We're not out of here yet.

[ handing one of the guns off to des and stuffing the other into the back of her pants now thanks. ]

The last boat I was in had a paddle and went like two miles an hour. [ also with rafael, for the record. which is to say: someone else hotwire this damn thing. ]

[nothingsodivine]

Yeah, don't get cocky just because you- [He looks between him and Buffy and just... lets that speak for himself. He pockets the extra gun and fires off two shots, himself (atk nat 20, dmg 26- apparently he felt inferior to Rafael or something- atk 18, dmg 13... if that one even hit).]

[romanticidal]

[ between the two of them, several baddies fall over balcony railings with cartoon AYIEEE noises. nice shooting, ace. aces. whatever. rafael is busy getting the boat to start (disable device 17), while y'all cover him.

of course, two fucking bad guys dart out from next door and break for another boat parked a few away. one of them tries to fire at des as he stands there and... crit fails. he accidentally clocks his friend on the head as he brings the gun up to bear. this is real life.

the engine on their own boat roars to life. aw yeah. ]

[slay]

Because we what?!

[ this is absolutely the time for this conversation. buffy backs further towards the middle of the boat so that rafael's questionable steering has no risk of sending her into the canal, then turns her fire on tweedle dee and tweedle dumber (atk 20, atk 17. dmg 11 and 5 respectively if they hit). ]

[nothingsodivine]

[APPARENTLY NO ONE CAN HARM DES BUT HIS FRIENDS. WHAT A CONCEPT.

He fires another shot (atk 30, dmg 12) at two of the idiots trying to start a speedboat chase.. And keeps talking.] Oh come off it. It don't take a detective to figure out only one bed in that room was slept in.

[He fires another shot, but that one... probably misses (atk 15, but if by some miracle that hit, dmg 17).]

[romanticidal]

[ they take down one of the idiots over there, as rafael straightens up at the wheel to turn around and stare at des, eyebrows lifting. ] You think that Buffy and I--