andres ♔ but life is for living

[nosdacariad]

♬ everything's not lost - coldplay

WHO || Everyone
WHAT || With Andres Isle reclaimed, the Knights deal with the aftermath of their battle to save its people
WHERE || Andres Isle, and various
WHEN || September 20th, 2014 - October 20th, 2014 [backdated]
HOW || Actionspam

When the sun rises on Andres Isle the next morning, and the smoke and rubble clears, it is impossible to call the battle anything less than a victory, in terms of freeing the people from Sarandis' hateful regime.  

But all victories come with their costs.

Sir Zatara's team easily accomplished their goal, shutting down the power station that allowed Sir Trinall's team to wrest control of Isle communications, although Emma Swan was grievously injured in the process and Faye Chamberlain found herself facing an unexpected temptation when she got her hands on Jordan Reeves' genie bottle.  Sir Wellington and Carpenter led an assault on the prison base, that succeeded in freeing all of the captured Shadowkind and putting a halt to the hideous experimentation going on there - at the cost of Sir Maxwell Briggard's life.   (And Nathan Young's... but he got better.  Twice.)   Even Myrilandel's familiar, Amaranth, was found, but when Lan turned violent on a bank of computers in a fit of hatred for the machines and all they represented, a targeting system was activated that released all the mind-controlled Shadowkind hybrids from the facility, on a dread path of destruction for the castle, ready to kill anything in their path.

Meanwhile, Sir O'Rourke's team had managed to locate the love potion that Dimitris Sarandis was using to control Kat Samcelot's behavior, and made it impossible for the next dose to be administered on time.  Sir Hathaway's team likewise made it into the castle, after following a set of clues that indicated Sir Elena Gilbert and the doppelganger Kyp had killed a guard and stolen their identity, heading into the palace proper.  Eavesdropping within its walls, they learned that the Prime Minister had been shot, and that the woman responsible was being held in a tower.  This, however, proved to be a cruel trick of Dimitris' ally, the powerful psion known as the Mind Master.  Forcing Elena to shapeshift into Dimitris, she mentally dominated Elena, and made her sit outside the empty tower cell, where Rose, Will, and Dean found her.  Having been approached by Kyp, who had been separated from Elena and feared for her life, a grudging alliance was formed, and the doppelganger approached "Dimitris" alone.  Despite her attempt to drop hints to her real identity, the situation escalated - until the Mind Master made Elena wrest Kyp's gun from him, and shoot him right between the eyes.   

In the meantime, Sir Yassin's team had blown an entrance for Prince Marcus Andres to lead his group into the castle through the tunnels below it.  Dimitris had, however, expected something like this, and filled the tunnels with all manner of monster and creation designed to stop them.   With exceptional teamwork, they bypassed all threats and made it within, where they were shocked to discover the real Chad Becksworth was in fact a prisoner here, and that Draken Crombe, leader of the Church of the Lord's Humanity had been impersonating him with the aid of the Mind Master, for access to NOVA Records' resources, for years.  They also discovered the bones of former Dragon's Claw Sir Ellison, Tia's father, and helped lay his spirit to final rest.

Knights around the Island struggled to halt the hybrid creatures from charging into the palace and ruining the internal team's chance to save Kat and Thomas and stop Dimitris.  Wynn led his own team to hold the line between the forest and the castle, but the brutal creatures they faced were overwhelming, and even with back-up arriving, creatures broke through.  Wynn sent Sir La Krail and Francesca, whose team had secured the guardhouse, to stop several driders who had passed, while he chased down a chemical golem that crashed right through the palace doors.

Dimitris had already sprung his trap, however, sealing Marcus and friends in a room below the palace pumped with poisonous gas, while he asked Kat Samcelot for her hand in marriage on a screen for them to watch.  At that moment, however, the love potion wore off, and she stabbed him in the dick, and helped free the others below.  Myri teleported several of the Knights up to the main floor to save Kat, who faced the guards alone and weaponless, but the arrival of the chemical golem provided enough of a distraction for Dimitris to make a break for the throne room.

Elsewhere on the Isle, Sir Koraith's team had been gathering allies among the Shadow Village, to face an attack that  they had been warned about, by soldiers seeking the location of Rocket, who had escaped the Shadow prison after attempting to assassinate the Prime Minister.  Koraith led those who could not fight towards the boats, while the others remained to hold the line and take out not only the soldiers, but also the clockwork creations called nimblewrights, robots whose construction Failboat had learned was based on some kind of demonic creature held in Dimitris' basement.   The battle was brutal, and Sir Riddick fell to the clockwork soldiers' assault.  The fate of Sir Jaina Solo and a Shadowkind villager named Indra Crestrage remains unknown, as they were also grievously injured in the assault.

Sir Edain's team had secured various boats to transport villagers off the Isle, but also discovered a sinister shack where body parts were created up for export to Japan.  In the battle that followed to hold the docks, Hook lost his entire arm, but managed to hold onto his life.

Back in the palace, several Knights joined Wynn in taking down the chemical golem, as Marcus and company moved to confront Dimitris and the Mind Master in the throne room.  The Prime Minister was unrepentant for his crimes, and revealed that after capturing Kat, he had had the Dragon's Claw Thomas Bancroft killed, dumping his body off a balcony for them to see.  Enraged, Kat ran to attack Dimitris, and was nearly killed by his bodyguard, Asha, but Fred Jr. intervened, sacrificing himself to save her.  Des murdered Asha instantly, while the Mind Master teleported herself and Dimitris away, leaving the guards willing to surrender, and the Knights frustrated by the hollow victory.

A search of the Isle revealed no trace of where the two had gone, but it also meant that Andres was free of Sarandis' influence.  Sir Banks' team had managed to gather all the wealthy human elite of the Island together inside a country club under the guise of a gas leak, and when Emma Frost appealed to the humanity of Sergeant Alastair Stone, a local police officer, he assisted them in routing out potential supporters of Dimitris, and separating them from the others, so that they might be shown the truth about what had been happening on the Island, right underneath their noses, in the form of a video of the prison laboratory provided by Logan and Nathan.
 
Most of the natives were shocked by what they saw, but had already been distrustful of Sarandis' true motives.  Hearing that the true heir to the throne had returned has given the people of Andres a real sense of hope that things can change, but the road will not be an easy one.

Rather than pull out and head home the next day, Wynn has asked as many Knights as possible to remain and help with reconstruction.  There are families to reunite, injured to tend to, homes to rebuild, a palace to remodel, and much more.  This post is for things following directly in the aftermath of the Battle for Andres, especially for things happening on the Island itself.  More posts will go up in the near future to backdate less immediate events.  Characters are free to go back and forth to the castle as they please, but also have accommodations provided in the city or palace on Andres Isle.

Comments

[icouldbe_bess]

[ alice is taken with the shadowkind, so when they start the rebuilding, she can often be found in that part of the island. at the moment she's sitting down on a bench with a bugbear cub in her lap. she's teaching the cub to pick the lock on a pair of handcuffs, but the little bear seems more intent on playing with alice's piles of messy red hair.

she looks up when thoster speaks and gives him a brief smile. before her attention turns back to the little bear. ] I think it might be time for dinner, why don't you run home for dinner and we can try again tomorrow.

[ the cub pouts tremendously and it's really obvious that alice wants to just give in and keep her, but. no. she stays firm. ] Tomorrow, I promise. [ after dropping a kiss between fuzzy wuzzy's ears, she shoos the little cub off. once she's gone, she looks up at thoster. ]

Hiya boss.

[bluffcheck]

[His smile isn't quite as wide, more fond and a little proud.]

I see you made it out in one piece. After seeing you get sick in the boat in, I was a little worried. So how did you fare?

[icouldbe_bess]

[ in answer, she yanks her tee shirt up so he can see the scar on her abdomen from being stabbed by the flying monkey's sword. she could just say, yo i got stabbed and it was almost twice my hp worth of damage, but no, she flashes him instead. YOLO. ]

[bluffcheck]

[Thoster blinks. Yes, he was there for that one, I think. That whole fight was a blur and he was basically useless for most of it. Still, he steps closer to get a better look, reaching to trace his fingers along the scar.]

First of many you'll get, I'd wager. But it's not just that I'm worried about. How do you feel about it all?

[icouldbe_bess]

I dunno. [ she smoothes her shirt back down once he's drawn his hand away. ] I'm not a huge fan of the almost dead part, but it seems pretty worth it to me that these kids can run around safely now. And I wasn't infected with magic this time, so I've got that going for me.

[ she smiles a little at the reminder of when they'd met. STILL NOT OVER IT. ]

[bluffcheck]

Oh, never going to let me live it down, will you? [he doesn't mind. it was a good thing, the way he sees it. it's how they met and how he brought her into the fold.]

You've got a kind heart, lass. That's rare in a place like this, doing the sorts of things we do. And you're braver than most men I've known- diving in to a thing like this when you've just barely started. Before you know it, you'll be a full knight and not need anything more from me. [sooner than she knows, likely.] Have you given much thought to what sect you'd like to join?

[icouldbe_bess]

Uh, is there a sect from breaking out of jail for funsies and stealing stuff because I'm bored? Because I'm not so much with the fighty or the talky or the smarty and I dunno, whatever the other ones are.

[ hey, she said no so much with the smarty. ]

[bluffcheck]

Well, there's always the freelance option, lass. Lots of us here that don't really fit in any box that they've got set.

[icouldbe_bess]

[ her nose wrinkles, but she hums thoughtfully. ] You know I hate boxes. I bet if Houdini was a knight he would have been freelance.

[bluffcheck]

No idea who that is but I'm sure I would agree if I did. [He shakes his head, laughing lightly.]

You can take some time to think about it if you'd like. Or if you have any questions, I can try to answer them.

[icouldbe_bess]

Wait, like... [ she squints, eyes narrowed. ] Like seriously think about it? Why, I've been a squire for... a freaking week and a half. No, wait, fifteen days. Okay, so two weeks.

[ really. she was squired on the sixth, it's around the twenty first... ]

[bluffcheck]

And in those two weeks you found the courage to volunteer for a war for our cause. And you were clever enough to survive on top of that!

[icouldbe_bess]

Okay, I will give you one of those. But I only survived because someone healed me and because Max straight up mom'd me.

[bluffcheck]

Believe me, lass. I've seen plenty of good men and women touched by a healer who still didn't pull through. There's something in you. I've seen it from the start.

[theres a dick joke here about hat he sees in her but I'm not making it. THIS IS A NICE MOMENT. /srs rper.]

[icouldbe_bess]

[ unspoken dick joke is known. ]

The only thing in me is all the souls I've stolen because gingers don't have souls of their own.

[ it would be mean to convince someone of that, wouldn't it? hopefully thoster has heard that joke before. ]

[bluffcheck]

[See Thoster.

See Thoster crit fail a sense motive check.]

...Sorry? Mind repeating that?

[icouldbe_bess]

[ ... ]

Joke. I'm joking. It's a joke.

[bluffcheck]

[okay he did much better on that sense motive. Another botch and he would have thought she was lying now. But we're good.]

Never heard a joke like that. But back to the point- Wynn has recommended that any squire that came here be promoted straight away. Y'don't have to take it, of course. If you feel like you've got to prove something to yourself, we can wait. But I think you're ready, lass.

[icouldbe_bess]

You think I can be promoted? [ she makes a disbelieving face. ] 'cause I think y'all bitches be cray cray.

[bluffcheck]

Crazy we might be, but the question is- are you crazy enough to take the offer?

[icouldbe_bess]

[ she actually takes the time to think about it. ]

Yeah, I think I probably am.

[bluffcheck]

Good. [He looks so damn proud of her.] Glad to hear it.

[icouldbe_bess]

[ she blushes a little at his expression. she doesn't think that she deserves that much pride, but it makes her feel all warm and fuzzy so she'll take it. she moves forward to hug him. ]

Thanks Thoster.

[bluffcheck]

[He wraps her up in a right embrace.]

You're welcome, lass. Happy to do it.

[icouldbe_bess]

You were a good mentor for the two weeks that was a thing. I'll make you proud, promise. All them bitches be like damn son, have you seen that chick Thoster trained? Bamf.