briefing ♔ i will never know myself until i do this on my own

[wynn]

This is War- 30 Seconds to Mars

WHO || Wynn,  Jack, Hasmed, Lis'sa, Dovan, Solace, Koraith, Christos, Tia, Nessa, Grant, Buffy, Myri, Finnick, Spike,  Gar, Archer, Des, Fred Jr., Dumage, Mark, Alainn, Zero, Colin, Lan, Eric, Val'drin, Risa,  Anastacia, Faith O., Max R., Belle, Kadir, Edain, Sydney, Zatanna, Aurelius, Jaina, Erky, Davin,  Riddick, Jordan, Henry, Leia, Willow, Kate, Allison, Francesca, Bo, Han, Aedan, Rocket, Drax, Nathan, Maxwell, Sam, Faith L., Cora, Dimitri, Alanna, Jaime, Klaus, Gus, Andrew, Stiles, Lydia, Gold, Jackson, Adam, Miles, Penelope, David, Derek, Andie, Kali, Cara, Nels, Taradiddle, Abigail, Astrid, Bambi, Frankie, Rose, Helen, Alaric, Alice, Lissa, Alex, Emma F., Cordelia, Zoe,  Sebastian, Malina, Alcide, Phineas, Fiona, Arthur, Faye, Mars, Kate, Lila,  Jameson, Felicity, Thoster, Adi, Brantley, Hook, Emma, Eleven, Alisha, Will, Dean, Grimrot     [Closed]
WHAT || Andres War Briefing
WHERE || Knights HQ, Round Table Room
WHEN || September 19th [forward dated]
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread, please call dibs in the dibs plurk!

On the eve of battle, an impressive array of Knights gathers in the Round Table room of the castle.  The usually cavernous room seems tightly packed with this many bodies, and places at the Table are reserved for Wynn, the Section Heads, all those who have had any hand in the Talisman mission, including New York, and Christos, but who's going to argue with him, really.  The air buzzes with a mixture of impending dread and on some fronts, excitement.  It's hard to deny that there are those in the room who have wanted to make a move on Andres for years.

Wynn waits for the appointed hour, before nodding for the doors to be sealed and calling the meeting to order.  

"Before we begin, I'd like to thank each and every one of you, many who have traveled an extensive distance at a moment's notice to join us here today.  I understand that many of you have little idea what you have agreed to, but I hope that before the end of this meeting, you will come to understand what we are doing, and why it must be done.

Andres' Isle has been held under the sway of the man who calls himself their "Prime Minister" for nearly a decade.  In these ten years, he has turned what was once an idyllic country steeped in tradition into a tightly controlled fascist nation disguised as representative of its people.  

Andres is far from the only country to fall to such a fate over the course of history, and it has never been the prerogative of this Knighthood to enforce our own personal vision of some sort of world order onto any nation.  We are protectors of justice, and our enemy has always been both that which comes from the darkest depths of Shadow, and intolerance and prejudice that stems from this world. 

But Dimitris Sarandis has proven to be an exception, an embodiment of all the ideals we stand against, who has aspired to systematize the kind of violence and hatred that threatens the welfare of countless innocents under his rule.  He has used his position to exploit Shadowkind on the island to the point of conducting torturous experiments on them, designed to help him accomplish his goal of forcibly enslaving non-humans, so that they may serve what he sees as the superior race of homo sapiens.  

As if this were not enough, Dimitris knows of our existence, and wishes to tear down our organization, understanding that we pose a threat to all he seeks to accomplish.  To this end, he has conspired against us, kidnapped members of our organization and subjected them to brutal and vile torture, and attempted to blackmail us through detaining Sir Thomas Bancroft and now Sir Samcelot, into complying with his whims - to leave his regime alone entirely, to turn over our most ancient, powerful artifact, and for me to submit to death at his hand.  

Killing Dimitris alone will not stop the system he has created, and will not help free the people of Andres.  Most citizens of the country remain innocent, terrified into compliance, or completely ignorant of what Sarandis does behind closed doors.  These people deserve our help, and the only way to do so is to show them the evil that lurks at the heart of their government, gain their support in uprooting that evil, and assist them in stabilizing their country thereafter.   

To do this, we will need to go beyond the usual parameters of our missions, with a militant, strategic push into the island designed to seize the castle, and take down Sarandis' rule."   He pauses there, letting that sink in.  "What I will not stand for is a callous attitude towards the innocents who we seek to protect on the Island, during this insurgency.  Their safety will be paramount to our operation, and as such, speed is important to what we will be accomplishing.  Dimitris expects retaliation, but he also underestimates our tactics.  As such, rather than attacking the castle with an army, you will be deployed about the Island in a number of small teams, each with an objective that will help us cut off Dimitris from contact with his supporters, secure Sir Bancroft and Sir Samcelot's safety, free those who are imprisoned, and confront Sarandis, taking the castle in the process.

Details of these individual operations not withstanding, I imagine there are some questions.  I open the floor to you to speak."

Comments

[risked]

[Once the briefing is over, Allison weaves through the crowd trying to track down Lydia. She had heard her name paired up with Stiles and Jackson and she knew that wasn't going to be the best personal situation for her to be in, so she wanted to check in with her before heading to find the other people she's meant to go off with.

She has to admit to a small pang of jealousy that she's not able to be in the group with her friends, but she understands her usefulness and wanting to be able to do the most with her skills.

It still sucks, though.

She manages to spot the flash of red hair and she spots Stiles too. At least she knows Stiles will do his best to keep Lydia safe. She gets closer and touches Lydia's elbow to signal that she's just behind her.]

[immuno]

[ Just as Stiles mentions going to find her, Lydia turns to find Allison tapping her elbow. Breaking into a smile, Lydia turns to pull her best friend in for a hug. They're not going to be seeing much of each other once they touch down, so she'd like to know that the last thing they did (if this goes pear-shaped) is make it clear that they love and support each other. ]

We should find Jackson.

[ She pulls back, turning to look at Stiles. It's not a Jackson and Lydia thing, that much is apparent in her eyes—it's an all of them thing. They're all in this: they're all going to war tomorrow. They should be together getting ready for it. ]

This is really happening, isn't it?

[risked]

[Allison welcomes the hug from her best friend and might hold onto it for a bit longer than is really needed. When she pulls away she nods. To both her comment about finding Jackson and that it's really happening.]

Do you know any of the people in your group? [She heard all the names, but she hadn't recognized many of them.]

[killingtodeath]

[Stiles meet Lydia's eyes and gives a short, silent nod. She's right about Jackson, and even if he doesn't like it, he's not about to fight her about it for the sake of his own pride. But he also won't go... looking for the guy, so he'll just answer Allison instead.]

Koraith is leading it. He's my mentor. Tia is Adam's mentor, right? [He looks to Lydia for confirmation there, since she's also friends with Adam.] And Belle is Abigail's mentor, I think. So... I know of them more than I actually know them. But it sounds like it's us and a bunch of knights who have been here long enough to have squires of their own, so I guess that's good.

[immuno]

[ She offers Stiles a nod, then looks to Allison. ]

I've never met any of them, either. I know Sir Gold and Sir Derosiers are together, though. She's, like, half his age, too.

[ Gossiping makes her feel better about the very real possibility of dying later. ]

[ex_psionic439]

At least the two of you will be able to watch each other's backs, right?

[Like they had all been part of some pact to look out for one another. What were they talking about? Adam doesn't really care. But he crashes this party by using Stiles' shoulder as an arm-rest and calling back to their conversation from earlier that morning. I guess that was sort of a pact, in a way.]

Plus, Tia's on your team. You guys have nothing to worry about.

[Oh hey, they had a friend he didn't know. Excuse him while he takes the initiative to properly introduce himself, and reaches forward to hold his hand out toward Allison.]

Hi, I'm Adam.

[risked]

[Allison watches as this guy drapes himself over Stiles and listens to the commentary for a moment before she's given a name. She reaches forward and shakes his hand.]

I'm Allison. [She's glad that at least there's some form of reassurance for Lydia, Stiles, and Jackson's team. The thought that she's going to be off on a different part of the mission still gives her a bit of apprehension.]

[pathology]

[THERE'S HER BOYFRIEND. /pounces on him. embarrasses him in front of his friends. not really. but she does latch onto his arm tho.] And I'm Astrid. You'll only see me if you're like, bleeding out, so hopefully you don't.

[immuno]

Adam.

[ Lydia looks up as he practically climbs up onto Stiles' back like a lemur. A cautious smile brushes over her lips, but it's gone in a moment. More important things. ]

Do either of you know anyone who's on the power lines team? That's where Allison's going, but I don't think any of us have met them.

[killingtodeath]

[Stiles glances over at Astrid and then gives Adam a look like nice before offering a fist bump. Because he knows who she is but has never met her. So let him just give his unsolicited approval now.]

[pathology]

Um ... I stole Beckett's wallet once. It was actually pretty boring.

[ex_psionic439]

[Hey, boo. He doesn't embarrass easily plus hot girlfriends are like the opposite of embarrassing. So he just kind of rolls with it like yep this is my side piece now what. But then Stiles offers up his bro-fist. Are they really fist-bumping at a time like this?? Yeah they are. That just happened.

And now that the important shit is out of the way, Lydia had an actual question. Give him a second to think back because Allison had not registered to him as a person of importance concern until he met her just a second ago (wisdom 20 total).

So after Astrid recounts her wallet stealing adventure~]

Zatanna was on the Kansas mission with me. And I only met Kate once, but I think she said she used to be a bounty hunter or something.

[immuno]

I heard that about Kate, too.

[ Hmm. She shrugs, looking at Allison like "well, there you go." ]

How was Zatanna? Is she a good mission leader?

[ex_psionic439]

I think Harrison was actually supposed to be our mission leader, but she kind of took over by the end. And then there was this weird soap opera moment she had with some random guy who looked homeless. [A pause, and then--] Seriously, fuck Kansas.

But she could like say random shit and then fireballs went flying across the room so she's pretty legit.

[killingtodeath]

I'm totally going to be able to do that one day, by the way.

[Very helpful addition to the conversation there, Stiles.]

[risked]

[It's good information, even if it is minimal at best. Having some sort of ground rules in mind, such as: do not piss off the bounty hunter - seemed smart. Also, don't go to Kansas... ever??]

I'm sure it'll be fine. [It's not like she hasn't had to deal with her fair share of difficult leaders. Gerard... her mom... her dad... they all had their own unique views on training and how things should be done.]

I'll meet up with them and at least get a face to go with all the names, once we find Jackson.

[immuno]

Good idea. We should all meet with our team leaders and figure out how we're going to achieve our objectives before we ship out.

[ wait. Did Stiles just ?? Her brow furrows in afterthought and she cranes her head to look at him like que ?? ]

You're studying magic?

[killingtodeath]

Kat was teaching me. [the one who is missing. the one he wants to go to Andres to help save. His eyes glance downward because he has a lot of feelings.]

I'm still pretty new at it all but... it's pretty cool.

[pathology]

Magic is the worst. [SHE HAS PTSD OK]

[ex_psionic439]

[Way to take the wind out of Stiles' sails, gurl.

Adam would probably be amused as hell if it were anyone else (and let's be real, he's still getting a kick out of it--he's just not being so obvious about it), but since he knows Stiles was actually really excited about that shit, and they're currently standing right in front of Lydia who is like the one person that Stiles wants to impress in the world, he decides to run some damage control instead.]

Anyway, it looks like you guys lucked out with some pretty solid groups. Guess that means I don't have to worry too much. [Not that he was really worried why do all the teen wolves have to grow on him ugh.]

[immuno]

[ Rather than engage with any of y'all—though it's especially tempting to call Adam on being worried about them, given everything—Lydia looks at Stiles with a soft, faintly worried look all her own. Kat. Sympathy draws the corners of her mouth downward, but she doesn't reach out for him. ]

We'll get her back.

[ Which 30% sounds like a reply to Adam and confidence in their teams. But only 30%. ]

Wynn's plan is solid; they must have gathered more intel than any of us realized.

[ Slowly cranes head to look at Adam. ]

[pathology]

They had Jack and Thomas circling the island for ages before everything went sideways, I'd fucking hope so. It's not like Wynn was writing his midterm the night before it's due or something, he knows his shit.

[killingtodeath]

[Honestly, Stiles isn't all that bothered by Astrid's off the cuff opinion. Lydia's look draws his attention and he nods in response to her declaration that they'd find Kat. Not them, probably. One of the other groups- but she'd be okay. He had to keep thinking that. Letting out a long exhale, Stiles glances over to Adam.]

How's your group look? I don't think I recognize...any of them. [But there were also like 17 teams and who the fuck remembers that many surnames. Before there's any time to even answer that question, though, Stiles snaps his fingers.]

Could you do that brain link thing again? When we go, I mean. [Probably impractical and distracting but Stiles figures its worth asking.]

[theshameofcain]

It's mostly squire central and that fancy lady who came in from Boston with that muscley guy.

[Says Bambi who had planned to stop and engage until she saw Astrid and her inner kill bill sirens go off and she just... continues on her merry way, looking flustered. FUCK YOU AND YOUR STUPID RACCOON.

That was a tag.]

[pathology]

I'm pretty sure Dragomir is Lissa, she's a cler —

[AND THEN BAMBI IS HERE. TALKING. USING HER MOUTH TO SAY WORDS. astrid looks equally kill bill sirens.]