knightsoflegend | andres ♔ but life is for living

Entry tags:

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

[With Gus gone, Helen has thus been put in charge of Cora which means Cora does her best to make her presence known every so often to prove that she's still in one piece. Or alternatively, to bring Helen food to make sure she took a break every once in a while.

This happens to be a mix of both, bringing over a sandwich and a water bottle as Helen finishes up with her latest patient.]

Dinnertime.

[Nope, she's not accepting any arguments on that. It's late as it is.]

Thank you, dear. [Cora has been just as much of what Helen needs as she might be what the squire needs. If asked, she'd say they were looking after each other, rather than Helen looking after the young woman.]

Sit with me for awhile? [The last of the patients are heading back to their beds. Helen has some cleaning up to do but they can sit and talk and eat here for now.]

[Cora will nod in agreement. She likes Helen, which makes it easier for her to do as asked and not run off. Or sass, even if that is part of her natural teenage programming.]

Are there still a lot of people who are pretty bad off?

[Not because she's particularly invested in that, but more out of concern. It had been part of her mission that had caused some of the problem, and she wants to make sure that those who need help can be helped.]

I think we're through the worst of it. I'm seeing more people who just want to take the opportunity of having doctors on hand. Those poor Shadowkind people, living like they were...

[She shakes head head, feeling so much sympathy for them and the hardships they've endured.]

[Cora nods a bit in return. Not that she's ever really needed a doctor much - werewolf - but she knows a bit about what it feels like to be cut off from the world.]

At least they can get the help now, rather than never at all.

That's very true. And I'm more than happy to provide my services for as long as their needed.

[She nods a bit.]

If they have healers or doctors here, maybe they can learn something too. That way when we leave, they can still take care of people.

[Rebuilding after a war shouldn't just involve leaving people to fend for themselves once it's all over. As much as they are repairing things, they should probably do some teaching too.]

Precisely. [Despite the situation here, Helen smiles wide, because she's proud of the girl for coming to that conclusion. It's good, always good to see young minds working so quickly.]

[She's not just violence and brute force, you know. She's got a brain too.]

Hopefully Mark will be able to ... unite them, I guess. I know there's already a guy in the Shadow Village who wants to contest it.

[She's very quiet! Helen hasn't gotten to know her well enough to know just how smart she is.]

Mark is very capable- more so than he realizes. But yes, I do hope that things go as smoothly as possible.

[She nods a bit. She's been wanting to talk to Mark, but at the same time unsure if she even knows what to say. There are questions she wants to ask him, questions that have nothing to do with the war and being king, and more with the simple thought of coming home again, something Cora can't do now, but she had been trying to do for a very long time before the Veil.

She wants to know if it's worth it.]

I'm sure we'll be able to figure it out. After all, we took a whole island in a day.

[Helen gives a small nod.]

Yes, it does appear like a success, but history often glosses over the fact that the rebuilding process can often last far longer than the actual fighting.

[She missed a lot of history in school. A sixth grade education doesn't really cover that.]

So basically it'll be a while before things are actually stable here?

Precisely. But that's not always a bad thing. Most things that will last do take more time.

[She nods a bit, turning that over in her head.]

And you want to make sure it's done right.

I don't know about you, but I'm not at all interested in coming back to fight the same battle here another day.

[She shakes her head.]

Me either.

[She makes a face.]

Especially if it's going to end in me being puked on again.

[Helen can't help but smile at the face Cora makes.]

Yes, we'll try to keep that to a minimum.

[She nods a bit, before taking a bite of her sandwich.]

The missions you've been on - is it a lot of monsters or is it more people?

[Helen pauses.]

I don't use that word.

[Fair enough. She probably shouldn't use it either.]

Sorry.

[She corrects herself.]

Is it more humans or creatures?

[Is creatures a better word?]

A fair mix. Humans always seem to hold the majority of the population, but there are an innumerable amount of creatures that we have yet to discover or fully understand.

Is that what you do with the Hoard? Try and understand them?

A majority of the time, yes. There are more Shadowkind arriving in this world all the time, new and fascinating creatures that are so often misunderstood. I strive to learn as much as I can from them, to help us all co-exist peacefully.

[She nods a bit. Helen would probably be the kind of person who would be an emissary for one of the packs back home. Her mom would have liked her.]

How often do things end ... peacefully?

(no subject)

daredtobelieve - 2015-01-18 23:13 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

impetere - 2015-01-19 13:31 (UTC) - Expand

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only