knightsoflegend | andres ♔ but life is for living

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andres ♔ but life is for living

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Brantley visits Andrew some time after he receives the call. His leg hasn't fully recovered from being chomped down by bone-crushing crab but he is fine enough to walk on his own (thanks to divine power). He goes into the comm tower and sees his mentor tinkering about.]

Hi, You look fine I guess.

[He offers his greeting with a warm smile.]

[Andrew snorts a laugh at that.]

Thanks, I think. Heard you had a rough go of it. How're you feeling?

[He rubs his head hearing Andrew's question.] Well... It was more disastrous rather than rough. But, I am still alive and pretty much good looking. So... not bad, I guess. How about you? [He smiles softly, showing his good mood.]

Oh, things went off without a hitch here. [Thanks to a spectacularly timed nat 20 for his hacking.] Got a bit hairy for the other team that was helping us, but they all made it.

So, how are you feeling about all this... stuff? I now the war thing wasn't sitting well with you before. Now that we're on the other side of it, I thought I'd make sure that you were alright.

Well, I have seen worse. So, I am okay with it I guess. [He puts on a smile but it fades immediately as he prepares his next sentences.] Actually, no matter how much you have seen, seeing people get stabbed is never easy. So, no, I don't feel great. And I am grateful we won the war, but since the only thing I did was dying, I am not exactly feeling victorious.

Sometimes that's all you need to do. And no matter what you may think, Wynn thinks it was enough too. He's given the green light for your promotion, if you've decided on what sect you'd like to join.

Yeah, if that's what I need to get promoted then I should be dying more often.

[Brantley laughs, shrugging off the whole thing as if it's a joke. He continues to chuckle a bit before doing a double take at his mentor.]

Wait-what!? You're not bloody serious, aren't you?

[His eyes widens almost popping out. Still in disbelief.]

Please tell me you're not... Wait, I mean please tell me you are serious! Wait! Seriously? But why!? This is not some kind of April Fools joke, is it? But, it's not April. You can't do that. This is not the afterlife either, is it? Because soldiers get promoted when they're dead. [And he bites his own hand without any warning.] Gah! Definitely not a dream! [#panicmode]

Jesus, will you calm down? [Oh my god when Andrew is the most put together person in the room, there's an issue.]

Yeah, I'm serious. You risked your life for the knighthood. That's the sort of shit Wynn is looking for. So... what sect would you like to join?

Wo-wow, this is wonderful... But, really? [Still not 100% buying it.] Well, if this is real. I'm not exactly Hide material. Not exactly Hoard either. Fire and light are out of the question. So, Tongue, Claw and Freelancers. What do you think? Claw? [He answers, only half joking.]

No that's... I mean you don't really think they're actually a sect, do you? No, you join one of the other sects and eventually if you're made of the right stuff, Wynn talks to you about becoming a Claw, but--

Don't go around making jokes about that anyway. It's all very fresh with Thomas' death. There's a lot of people that would think you're being disrespectful. I know you well enough to know better, but just... knock it off.

[So he takes a breath and actually answers the question.]

Probably Tongue, I'd say. You seem to like talking well enough. There's a lot of different types in there too. Could learn a lot.

Yeah, sorry. Shouldn't have said that. [The death of Thomas bothers him as much as others. Probably more. He was one of his friend. He sighs deeply.]

Tongue, it is, then. [He sighs again.] So, after this you are not my mentor anymore?

Nope. You'll be a free man.

Uh... [Brantley takes a moment to process what his mentor just told him, feeling joy and sadness at the same time. He is happy he won't need to be a squire anymore but somehow he'll miss it, being Andrew Gatewood's squire. They're not the perfect Knight-Squire duo, but they are a great couple in some sense. Always fighting but always taking care each other at the same time.]

I'll miss you, you know. Well, technically you won't go anywhere but.... I'll miss you somehow. [Brantley smiles softly while looking at Andrew's face, almost staring at it as if this is the last time they talk to each other.]

Yeah. [Andrew responds, a little awkward for how Brantley is staring.]

I'll be around, though. Computer lab, same as always. Oh- and you'll be invited to the party Bo and I have once things calm down. We sort of eloped a few days ago.

What!? [This day just can't get any better, can it?] Wow, that's... great. Really great. How did it happen!? When!? Where!? [Oh yes, he is interogating you, Andrew. And he won't take "it just happened" for an answer.]

Back at the castle. We got Wynn's message about going to war ad just started talking and... We're lucky there was a cleric in the Light wing who was willing to do it. Still need to get real rings and all that but... Yeah, we're really happy about it.

Guess I sort of have you to thank. If I hadn't gone to that bar with you, I never would have asked her out.

No, even without me, I am sure you were going to meet sooner or later. I was just a catalyst to make that happen.

[Because this guy is a hopeless romantic. He believes in soul-mate attracting each other which happen to everyone, though unfortunately not to him yet. Maybe the veils has yet to work its magic.]

But, since you insist, you're welcome. [His mouth makes a grinning gesture playfully.] And since I am the one who put you into this, I will be taking responsibility for it, of course.

Responsibility? Nah, don't need you to worry about that. We've got it from here.

[He's got traumatizing visions of Brantley trying to get into bed with them or something. Look, they've had some really weird conversations. He's just not really on board for any of that.]

Thanks, though.

[That vision probably has gotten to Bratnley's mind at least once, so his judgement is completely justified. But that's not what Brantley is thinking right now.]

Oh no! I insist! Even though you already have someone else planning your bachelor party, I am still going to give you one. Even if that means you have two bachelor parties. Technically, you are not a bachelor anymore but a man has to experience one for that is specially hosted for him.

Shouldn't mean I have two. I don't think anyone has really thought to throw one. Maybe Ella. But probably nothing more than just Netflix and beer. But yeah- sure. Why not? Might as well get all the celebrating in that we can, right?

Oh! Don't you worry. I am going to throw a party with more exposed skins and less television. [He grins, thinking about the party he is going to throw.] Just leave them to me! [He nods reassuringly.]

Right... [He can see this going so badly. But oh well.] Well, I should probably get to work but I'll see you at your promotion ceremony and all that.

[Party won't be fun without some stimuli in it.] Wait, There is still one thing that I really need to do. [Brantley without any warning proceeds to hug him and before he has the chance to react, Brantley lets him go.]Thanks, and congratulation. Have a great day, Andrew. [Brantley pats Andrew's shoulder twice and walks off...]

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andres ♔ but life is for living

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