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

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

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."

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[ happiness and relief are hard to come by lately, especially so on the face of the widowed demigod, but as she approaches rose, the smile that brightens her expression is genuinely warm and seems, while not happy, lighthearted at the sight of rose. ]

You know the time is the roughly same as it was ten seconds ago, right?

Yeah but I figured if I got annoyed enough at the second hand I could bully it into ticking faster.

[The quip comes easy, the smile one of the few Rose has given today that hasn't been tinged by something else and though seeing Vi would forever be a reminder of Luthir, not all reminders were bad.

Her existence was everything that was good about him and as long as Vi was in this world, Rose felt like something of her mentor was still around. It was oddly comforting to somebody who was raised to believe in 'They Come First', like somehow the ones who gave their lives for a cause didn't matter as much as those they protected. As long as there was Vi, Luthir would always matter and if for no other reason (Though they did exist), Vi would always matter to Rose.]

Alas. Physics. [ a beat. ] Probably physics. I think it's physics. [ she has no idea. this is the face of no idea. math, science, what, no. vi can barely manage reading with her dyslexia, numbers? hahhaha no. ]

So, ground rules, because I can do that, just watch me. Um, be careful, stay safe, use your brain, but don't forget you have a heart too. Uh, come back in... well, come back. Number of pieces optional. I'm not even picky anymore. Come back alive.

[ unlike luthir. she manages to keep the slight, teasing smile on her face, but it's just keeping the ever-present sorrow at bay. ]

That's one of the ones with Math, right? [And from the look on Rose's face? Screw Physics. And Math.

It takes her a second to realize that this is a pep talk and surprise shifts to something warmer as Rose tries to remember the last time she'd ever gotten one of these. She supposed from Luthir which in many ways, made this matter more to her.

She nods along though, grinning at the appropriate moments yet not taking this half as lightly as the tone could suggest because underneath the teasing and the seemingly casual banter, there was something far more serious and Rose wasn't about to forget that.]

Heart. Head. Careful - [Checking things off on her fingers.] Stay safe and pieces optional as long as I come back? Yeah, pretty sure I can manage that. [Grinning back at her.] Now, think you can do something for me?

[It's still casual, still keeping the heavy trapped behind some invisible wall of concrete but what Rose is about to do is anything but.

Anyone who had spent any time with the Dhampir, who knew her in any way at all might have picked up on the fact that she didn't exactly have much in the way of personal possessions; Only the nazar she normally wore around her neck and the chotki she wore on her wrist. They weren't valuable to anyone other than her, just remnants of a life she hardly remembered but they were hers and that mattered, at least to Rose.

Her fingers work to remove the chotki (dex 17) and keeping with the casual nature they'd been carefully crafting between them rather than make a huge fuss of the moment, Rose tosses it in Vi's direction, expecting her to catch it.]

Look after this for me? I'll probably lose it or, get it caught on something. You can give it to me when I get back. [Despite the lightness of their banter, it's an unspoken promise from Rose, the most she could make without running the risk of being made a liar because she knew as well as anyone that there was at least a chance that she wouldn't be back to get that Chotki. She planned to be though, no matter what and that was what she was trying to say here.]

[ vi catches it easily (reflex save 20 total), but spends a long time looking at it in her hand. she understand what it means, and it's sweet, that rose would think to make that kind of promise to her. and she knows it's mostly borne out of luthir.

but her dream is whispering in the back of her mind like waves in fog, the words crashing like a boat against rocks.

her head shakes automatically, even as her fingers curl around the bracelet. somehow she knows what it is?? (knowledge: religion 18) her thumb brushes against the beads and it twists in her hand like she knows what to do with it, clacking against her wedding ring. but the words she hears as it moves between her fingers aren't any part of the lord's prayer.

she swallows and looks to rose with a weak ghost of a smile and she settles the bracelet gripped in her hand against her stomach. ] Yeah, sure.

[ a beat. ] He'd be so proud of you.

[ so much for casual. ]

[A small smile touches Rose's lips as she watches Vi with her Chotki, something about her having it while she goes off to war feeling right to the Dhampir. Though it was in part about Luthir, it was about Vi as well, or rather the fact that she felt like Vi had lost enough this year. She held no misconceptions that she was on the same level to her as her other friends but at the same time, Rose knew that if she didn't come back it would drive home the loss of her husband and Rose never wanted to be the cause of more pain to somebody who had lost so much already.

There was however a part in giving this to Vi, that was selfishly motivated perhaps. Not feeling it around her wrist would be another reminder why she had to make it home, that there were so many reasons she had to fight, had to survive no matter what. She had ties to this place, more than she realized and part of being on the road, part of returning to the Castle before heading off to Andres was being reminded of that.]

Thanks - [Managing to get that out just before Vi continued and Rose's face became frozen in an emotionless mask.

One of the side effects of searching for Kyp and Elena these last three months was that she hadn't really stopped long enough to process everything that happened. From the night of Keijen's concert until today, Rose had been constantly moving, the very epitome of running to stand still.

Funny how six little words could bring her to a shuddering halt.

Her mouth opened, closed, opened again as she tried to find the right words to say in reply to something that meant more to Rose than she could probably ever convey.

In the end, there weren't any words, not enough, never the right ones so she did something few people would have ever seen her do before.

She stepped forward and wrapped Vi up in a hug, fighting back the first tears that she'd been unable to shed in the last three months as casual went up in flames.]

[ oh.

hugs.

vi isn't unused to hugs. she's just used to hugs from little myri where her chin can rest on top of myri's head with a little bit of tiptoes on vi's part. or finnick who feels like a giant compared to her, like being hugged by a god. (she knows gods, this is the truth.) she and felicity hug but not as much as vi sidles up to myri or finnick and just sort of ducks into their arms without asking or acting like it's a big deal.

vi and rose are roughly the same height, her chin slides against the other girl's shoulder as her eyes squeeze shut. it's a new sensation and the surprise of it leaves her just standing they're for a moment before her arms lift awkwardly to circle around rose in return. ]

I'm sorry I couldn't save him.

[It's foreign to Rose too which is perhaps why it threatens to be her undoing, the Dhampir silently angry at the tears that blur her vision and while a part of her could have stayed like this until her eyes cleared again, Vi's words saw her immediately pull back, half disengaging from her as she fixed the woman with a look of pure confusion.]

Don't say that. [It wasn't scolding but disbelief, certainty on Rose's part that Vi should never feel like those words needed to pass her lips.]

You couldn't have saved him anymore than he could have saved himself. [She wasn't there, she didn't know what happened and the truth was, she didn't care either. Rose knew all that she had to know.]

It's crap that he's dead... There's nothing fair or right about the fact that he's gone but I know... he didn't go quietly, or easily because that wasn't who he was so if he couldn't save himself, nobody could. Not you, not anyone.

[ below my feet -- mumford & sons

except she could have. she could have duct taped luthir to the bed and left him in england. except rose is right, telling him to sit out was something vi couldn't have done no matter how much she wanted to keep him safe (lord knows she tried) because that wasn't the man she married, he would never have wanted her to deal with anything on her own and he never did, the nightmares were all her own but luthir was always there when she woke up.

she married the butthead because she loves him. (not past tense, not ever past tense.) even the parts she hates. currently she hates his stupid gallantry and enormously full heart that loved their baby and protected her within the same breath he realized she existed. in ten minutes she will love that and then go back to hating it.

stupid nobel, perfect elf butthead. her face scrunches up, she's stopped bothering to keep herself from crying because there is really no use to trying since the tears are going to come anyway. she's adapted to be able to function at 100% even when her face is leaking. grief, yo. ]

You make... an unfair but good point and I am irritated by it. For the record.

And. [ she hesitates, fiddling with the bracelet, its probably not the time but balls to the wall, vi is done with things being unsaid. ] He would have promoted you. Your temper and impetuous? Not to toot my own horn, but he had a soft spot for it. [ LOOK MA A SMILE. ] Violent brunettes with flower names and a penchant for murdering things, pretty sure it was his niche. [ really tho, legionnaire and guardian. poor luthir. ] When you come back, me and you, we're gonna tackle Wynn. 'kay?

[ a beat. ] No pressure.

Edited 2014-10-13 18:05 (UTC)

[The bark of laughter she manages in response is barely audible but it shakes her shoulders, seems to ease some tension there as she roughly swipes the back of her hand across her face, as if it could erase this brief glimpse at her grief.]

I've always excelled at being irritating.

[Managing an half smile that breaks across a face still damp with her tears.

When Vi goes on, Rose's breath becomes stuck halfway up her throat, a pained expression twisting her features as her gaze falls away. She'd heard these words before, at least the sentiment behind them, Luthir's intentions, Luthir's belief in her and yet when Wynn had spoken them, the hurt was too fresh and there were too many other things going on for her to even try and accept the next logical step.]

It's not Wynn... [Not him who stood between her and becoming a fully fledged Knight. It was Rose.] We talked, after... [Everything.] He told me what Luthir intended but I -

[She shakes her head, trying to get to the truth of her refusal, not the excuses she'd made to Wynn. She'd said she didn't want a pity Knighting. She'd said she didn't deserve it after what Elena had done right under her nose. She'd said a lot of things but not the real reason.]

It's the ceremony. [She knows saying it out aloud that it probably sounds stupid.] You're supposed to stand up with your Knight and all of your friends and loved ones are meant to come and support you and...

[And Luthir died.
Elena abandoned and betrayed her.
Dimitri let her down.]

I didn't want it. [Not then. Not so soon after everything had happened and even now? Not until everything was done. When it was over, maybe she'd feel differently but she just didn't know because no matter what, it would still be a reminder of those who had been lost, either from death or something almost as bad in her heart.]

Edited (typo D:) 2014-10-14 21:28 (UTC)

[ it's really quite fortunate (or unfortunate, depends) that rose chose to keep her feelings about elena silent because vi would have forgotten her grief and sorrow for a moment to slap her with the word of the lord.

instead she chooses to focus on the other part. ]

Oh honey, Luthir is going to be there, he's always going to be there. That feeling that you're doing good? That's him.

Come on, trust me, my mom is queen of the underworld. People who die, they never really leave.

[ she can say that to other people no problem, she said it to myri and now she's saying it to rose, but vi can't manage to believe it herself. probably because when she thinks of death she thinks of it in terms of her family -- they did leave, they stayed left, even when they didn't have to, even when they had the power to walk out and hug her daughter when she needed it most.

/bitterness intensifies. ]

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

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