Round 84: The Kidnapping of Tiffany Jamesson

[midpointmods]

PLAYERS: Isamu Fuwa, Quicksword Irene, Hajime Aikawa VS. Bucky Barnes, Daylight vis Lornlit, Inara Serra
LOCATION: Tycoons' Depot
GOAL: Assume and maintain custody of Tiffany Jamesson
WARNINGS: Kidnapping, attempted murder, sex work mentions
OTHER: OOC post for plotting and questions!

After traveling most of the day, the sun is starting to set when the two teams reach Tycoons' Depot. Who arrives first depends on how quickly the teams get up and organized that morning, and how hard they want to push their horses.

The active portion of the round doesn’t start until the next morning, anyway. After scouting around and making plans, everyone can enjoy a room at the Bullion Inn under the watchful eye of the Madame (for a crisp points price, of course), camp rough just outside town, or bully or bribe one of the locals into letting them borrow their home for the night. Looking around proves there are, in fact, a number of possibly empty houses around the town’s outskirts, if the players would like to brave one of those.

In the morning, it’s time to go. Tiffany Jamesson, a sixteen year old girl with a brilliant smile and auburn hair done up in ringlets, has horseback riding at nine in full-on cowgirl attire, lunch at noon and piano lessons at one in a yellow dress of frothy lace, a nap from three to four when the day is at its hottest, and then dinner with her father at six in a pretty pink affair before retiring for the night afterwards. When will the kidnappers strike? When will the protectors show their hand? The teams have three days in which to accomplish their goal. The clock is ticking.

Comments

[pennycopper]

"Safely" on the other side of town from the "action", Tiffany is swinging down off her horse-- a spirfire bay mare who stamps in place and chews on her bit-- feeling relatively at ease. Of the three "bodyguards", Irene is the only one she feels even remotely positive towards. Stuck alone with her isn't so bad.

But with only Irene around, that does make it easier for one large metal boy and one small unarmored woman to sneak around the back of the barn as Tiffany hands her horse off to a groom and steps back outside.

[sunborne]

Day peers from behind the barn now and then, trying to make sure it's only Tiffany and one person. He dimly remembers there was a distinguishing feature for her - something about her... her leg? was it her leg? - but it's hard to recall right now when their target is right there in front of him and Inara. Besides, he's gotta keep his focus on his job here:

Distract the bodyguard, let Inara shoo Tiffany Jamesson to their agreed spot, and get out of the scuffle in one piece. Sounds easy enough because come on- How hard can it be?

After giving Inara a sufficient warning to stand at a very healthy distance - he seriously warns her to start jogging so she doesn't get hit, arc energy exposure to humans is never fun. - Daylight begins to generate an excessive amount of arc energy from his core. Daylight has gotten a lot better at controlling this stuff over the decades and it shows with how quick he draws it out, allowing it coil beneath his plating. The gathered energy hums with power underneath his plating, a visible purple-white glow visible from within him now.

He then wills it to crackle out through his seams in bursts of sparks and little explosions, making loud and obvious zap! and pop! sounds all the while. When he's sure he's got enough covering his form, he walks out into view and cackles evilly as possible while approaching them.

"Well, well, well- What do we have here? Tiffany Jamesson, the ticket to the big time, and only one bodyguard at her side?" Daylight can't keep a straight face at all for this, wondering how genuine bad guys can do stuff like this. He allows himself to smile as he (tries to) evilly laugh again, allowing the arc energy to dance and jump on his frame in an erratic, menacing matter. "You're making this way too easy on me."

He takes a dramatic step forward, stomping one foot down as hard as possible, trying his damndest to make the ground shake and to give emphasis to his larger build than either of them. "I'll only say this once: Give me the girl and no one gets hurt."

[unofficial_ambassador]

Inara isn't exactly certain what she’d been expecting when Daylight had offered to distract Irene (especially after he had warned her to keep her distance for safety reasons) but the panto villain dialogue definitely wasn't it. It seems that he hadn't really needed much pushing to be the showman after all.

They've likely only got a few minutes before all hell breaks loose on the other side of town. Inara is grateful once again that Soldat had talked her into more practical clothing for this as she sneaks up from the side. Hopefully, all that sparking (it reminds her of Anders a bit even if the source probably isn't a ghost) marks him as a threat to Irene, or she might not even get a chance to talk to Tiffany.

[givemyrightarm]

Irene sticks close to Tiffany, looking decidedly unimpressed at Daylight's display. "I suppose you talk a good game, at least."

[pennycopper]

Tiffany, on the other hand, looks quite impressed. There's a split second where she looks excited-- she'd been afraid she wouldn't get anything fun out of this at all-- before she puts a hand to her heart and the other to Irene's shoulder. The one without the arm, so she's not in the way if her "bodyguard" wants to fight. "What a villain, Irene! He's so huge!"

She steps back, closer to where Inara is sneaking up, letting Irene stand between her and "danger".

[givemyrightarm]

"So I see."

She eyes Daylight speculatively. If the teams are equal in number, then it's possible that one of them is still skulking around here, with the third keeping an eye on Hajime (assuming they didn't see through the ruse immediately and decide not to bother, anyway). Which means at least some of this display is probably for show. "What do you plan to do if we refuse?"

[sunborne]

....

.....

......

........

This wasn't part of the script. At all. Is this how genuine bad guys felt when they met with Nightbreak or Emer's flat 'no' at them? Poor guys.

Pausing in his tracks, the glow coming from under Daylight's plating can be seen visibly getting dim as a look of confusion overcomes his expression. His winglets can be seen drooping down hard and fast behind him while he tries to take in the reply. "Wait- What?" The deep 'evil' voice he's using is dropped in his state of confusion. Daylight sounds a lot younger and, well, less evil. "What do you mean if you refuse? I... I don't know? I never thought we-"

No! Bad guy! You're playing the bad guy, Daylight! It means you have to roll with these sort of moments.

"I mean-! If you refuse-! We- I-" Trying to think of something on the spot, Daylight finally blurts out what he thinks is, obviously, the next best thing he can say when faced with this hiccup: "Ah yes, this is going according to the plans then! We'll take you as well, bodyguard!" Wait. What.

Daylight's processors are going full !!!! at his words, knowing that it was contradicting some of his earlier statements. He shushes them as he ramps back up his generation, bringing back the dancing electricity as he continues to talk: "I'm sure your teammates will be willing to play nice with us if we had you as well, my pre-" Euuuurgh. Even he wasn't going to go that far. He decides to skip that and go straight for:

"Muwahahaha! Two birds in one stone! Yes, this will work out for us perfectly. Muwahahahahaha!"

Oh yes, he's doing the evil laugh. Complete with generating 'evil' crackling lightning of his own making to make it look dramatic and eye-catching as possible for Inara.

[givemyrightarm]

Irene considers this. "Fine. We refuse."

[unofficial_ambassador]

You know what? This is fine. It could be better, obviously, but Irene and Tiffany seem to be playing along for now. If it comes to it, Inara has salvaged terrible acting before (the time she'd had to rescue Mal and Zoe from a failed train escape comes to mind).

She's really not sure how well the villain facade is going to handle a direct refusal like that, though - or whether Irene might lose patience with this whole thing and simply chop his head off - so she reaches out from her position behind the two women to grab Tiffany by the wrist.

[pennycopper]

Tiffany squeaks and jumps, much more convincingly than her display of "fear" a moment ago. Being suddenly touched from behind is a less charming surprise than giant robots pretending (badly) to be villains.

Of course, spinning around to confront the grabber finds a very lovely young lady, and Tiffany's startle turns into a dumbfounded blink. "Are you with the robot?"

[unofficial_ambassador]

"Yes. I realize he's..." She does her best. "... Terrifying. And he does love a good evil monologue, apparently, but the rest of your team of bodyguards is only going to be distracted for so long, so now that you've both refused to cooperate we’re going to have to take you away."

[givemyrightarm]

Irene turns just enough that she can see Inara, and inwardly sighs. Despite... everything about this... she's tried to take this assignment at seriously as she can, and it rankles that Inara could get so close.

Still, what's done is done, she supposes. "Tiffany. Do you want me to fight our way out, or would you rather we go with them? I know you have been less than happy with us as a whole."

(She probably should have asked Tiffany before she'd refused for her, but this assignment has been more like a weird form of play-acting, and Irene has never been all that good with play-acting.)

[pennycopper]

"Oh, I'd hate to see anyone get hurt," Tiffany says, collecting herself again and fluttering her free hand around a little. "As long these strangers promise not to harm me? Do we have your word?"

[sunborne]

Oh hmmmm. He really isn't sure what's going on anymore - which isn't new in his experience, now that he thinks about it - but yeah. Let's roll with this.

Glad to have an excuse, Daylight powers down his arc energy and crosses his arms over his chassis. "An acceptable compromise," he states with a loftiness he struggles to keep on his face. He does an elaborate half-bow, adding in (what he thinks is) an incredibly evil-sounding voice, "Crime does pay but only if we have the hostage in one piece. I would hate to lose on the-"

What's the bad guy word for this?

"-payout over you getting harmed." Nailed it.