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.

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[At some point, Bambi shows up, plants herself in a spinning chair, and begins twisting it back and forth while she watches him work.]

I'm getting promoted.

[Turning towards her, Andrew's eyebrows shoot up at the abrupt declaration.]

No shit? Good on you. Guessing I'll be seeing more of you, then?

[Because really where else would Bambi go? You belong with him and the other nerds, girl.]

I've only wanted to be in the Hoard since I got here, so... Damn straight. [It's still sort of a bittersweet victory- even the cocky remark sounds hollow.] I mean it's crazy, right? I still feel like a squire.

I think it took me about a year. Didn't help that Zero and I were still working together all the time so not much changed. [He gives her a crack of a smile.] Happy for you, though. You'll do great.

God, I forgot you were Zero's squire too. [SQUIRE SIBS. She rubs her head, grimacing. Something's still bothering her and after a second of fumbling with her lighter to try and light the cigarette she's produced from behind her ear, she blurts out:] You know, we got into a big fight out there on the docks and I tried to run away like a coward.

[He laughs.

Not like tipping his head back and roaring with laughter, but a chuckle that catches in his throat.]

Uh- hi, have we met? Do you know how many missions I invented surveillance jobs for just so that I could stay back at the hotel and avoid actual field work? Getting out there is fucking terrifying.

[turning away from his computer, he gives her his full attention.]

Tried to run means you didn't. What happened?

If I had my fucking choice, I would have stayed on the damn boat. [She should have stayed. Maybe Alice wouldn't have taken that extra blow for her. Even if they got healed, it was still staggering.] These winged monkeys nearly ripped me a new one. Alice saved me and got hit too. I would've run all the way back, but... [She swallows.] But I went back to see if she was okay. And it turned out fine, but I still ran and she still got hurt trying to save me, and what if that's always gonna be my life, Andrew?

It might be. [wow such pep talk. very motivation.] If you let it, yeah- it'll definitely be your life. Wanna know how I know that? Because it was mine for about five years.

And it's weird, because I can't really say what changed. All sorts of things started changing at once, so I don't really know what really did it, but my best guess?

My squire.

[Bet you thought it was Bo. Surprise.]

I don't think I really got what being a real Knight was until Wynn gave me a squire. And I think he knew that. I think that's why he waited so long to give me one, to make sure I wouldn't cock it up. But it's weird. He says stuff or you say stuff that I get because I was definitely like that. I was the worst squire you can think of. I mean- I was good at what I did, yeah, but anything out in the real world?

[He scoffs and shakes his head, laughing.]

But something will happen to you and it'll click. It might not be right away, and you might start thinking it will never happen but trust me. You'll be alright.

Edited 2014-12-27 16:34 (UTC)

[She swallows, listening to him talk. It's probably good that this comes from Andrew, someone else whose better at research and support than anything out in the field, because God knows if this were a member of any other sect or one of those jack-of-all-trades like Zero who can do just about anything, she'd probably shut down.]

You can't really run when your squire's in danger. [She nods somberly.] I mean, you could, but I don't know that anyone here would be stupid or cowardly enough to try that.

[So if she wants to learn to stop running, then one day she'll learn the hard way- when she has someone she has to protect. When she's no longer the little sister that runs away when other people try to protect her.]

Thanks, Professor.

[He gives her a smile that's a little sad, because he knows from his own experiences that it's probably not going to be easy. And there will be days where she wonders if she's cut out for this job at all.]

Yeah. Anytime.

[And he means that. Anytime she wants to talk, he'll be around. He'll probably be working while he does it, but he'll be around.]

[this would be the moment she gets up and leaves if she had anywhere else she needed to be, so she sits there in awkward silence, still twisting back and forth in her chair until finally the silence becomes maddening again.]

So what're you working on?

[If she's gonna be here talking, she'd rather talk about anything else but her problems now that she's vented once.]

[He turns his laptop to show her.]

Been trying to put things back where we left them in terms of the communications and security they had in place. Last thing we need is someone coming in and pulling one over on Mark like we did.

Sick. [She scoots the chair closer.] The last thing we need is a revolving door of Andresian rulers thanks to a flimsy firewalls.

My thoughts, exactly. So I started setting up this-- [I can't do techno babble, but just know that Andrew is going to just rattle off explanations for all of us. It might take awhile (knowledge: technology 23)]

[MUCH TECHNO. VERY BABBLE. WOW.]

Cool beans. Maybe they'll name a street after you for that one.

Think so? Gatewood Drive has a nice ring to it, actually.

It sounds just classy enough to be where the country club is. Everyone will know it. [You earned it, bro, okay.] Give you and the girlfriend something to point at and embarrass your kids about someday.

[Andrew is probably the only person she will accept the idea of romance with. He's so dorky that love can't be dead if he landed a chick that hot.]

Wife. [He says as he gets back to his work, not really thinking about the correction and just continuing with his business. Because he's a clueless idiot full time, basically.]

[....]

Cuddly tech support not-mage says what?

Huh? [He glaces up, realizes what he said, and then grins sheepishly.] Oh... whoops. Yeah, Bo and I decided to elope last night.

You maniac. [She punches his shoulder lightly.] You just don't drop that on someone casually.

Sorry! It just sort of slipped out. [Still grinning.] It's pretty cool, though.

[His marriage??? Is cool??? idk you're the one who is friends with this loser, bambi.]

Yeah, that is exactly how someone describes marriage. [She grabs his hand. idk you're the one friends with this loser, andrew.] Are you even wearing a ring?

Sort of. [he's still got the bobby pin that Bo bent for them both. He looks at it and there's just all these lovesick mushy feelings there in his eyes.

~sigh~

Boy has it bad.]

We're going to get real ones once we get back.

[oh my god andrew she is squinting so hard.]

Not sure if I should puke in the trashcan or cry "awww." [she pats his hand.] I do hold you to as the prime example of geeks in the Knighthood being swag enough to have game, so don't screw it up, Professor.

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