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Mark Sandazhard ([personal profile] nosdacariad) wrote in [community profile] knightsoflegend2014-12-22 11:09 am

andres ♔ but life is for living



♬ 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.


socialgraces: (pic#2975687)

[personal profile] socialgraces 2014-12-30 02:32 am (UTC)(link)
[ oh, ew, a dog :| the real reason will and francesca don't hang out more. but she'll suck it up because she's beyond pleased to see him still alive and well, and in one piece. she's also happy he's decided to stick around, at least for now.

will was definitely much more involved in all the castle drama than francesca had been, or even currently was, so she isn't exactly sure what he may have experienced, or what he may be attempting to come to terms with now, post-war. all things a mentor should review with a squire, so here she is, standing a few feet from him (and his mutt), doing well to disguise her disdain for any and all animals, and calls out: ]
Will?
mydesigns: (pic#8006661)

[personal profile] mydesigns 2014-12-30 03:29 am (UTC)(link)
[he turns at the sound of his name, and ... takes a few steps forward. but not too many. personal space is good. his dog trails after him tho, probably to franny's dismay.] Hey, Francesca.
socialgraces: (pic#8035097)

[personal profile] socialgraces 2015-01-04 02:03 am (UTC)(link)
[ as long as it doesn't lick her, they'll be cool ] As your mentor, it seemed essential we discuss your performance on this mission.

As your friend, I must admit I'm far more concerned with your opinion on the mission, as a whole, and your role in it.
Edited (no reason really i'm just help a indecisive today :/) 2015-01-04 02:05 (UTC)
mydesigns: (Default)

[personal profile] mydesigns 2015-01-04 06:19 am (UTC)(link)
[he looks a little pained while he takes off his glasses to clean them with the hem of his shirt.] My team completed one of our objectives, but only by dumb luck. That's what finding Kyp and Elena was. We couldn't stop them from interfering, those wheels were set in motion before we ever set foot in the palace. I think I was invaluable to my team, because I played a crucial role in tracking Kyp and displaying tact, but I'm not going to pretend that I don't feel partially responsible for his death.
socialgraces: (pic#2451139)

[personal profile] socialgraces 2015-01-04 06:31 am (UTC)(link)
That's a common experience when a person witnesses the death of someone else, whether they were powerless to stop it or not, they may still feel guilt over not doing more, one way or the other. [ she... has rarely felt this way (she killed quite a few people just since they're arrival andres without a shred of guilt) but it death feels different outside of combat, and especially when it's not an enemy that's fallen ]
mydesigns: (pic#7886032)

[personal profile] mydesigns 2015-01-04 06:36 am (UTC)(link)
Rose wanted him to talk to Dimitris unarmed. I didn't think it was right, so I unloaded the magazine from his pistol but didn't clear the chamber. I still don't think Rose was in the right, but he might still be alive if it weren't for what I did.
socialgraces: (pic#6501563)

[personal profile] socialgraces 2015-01-04 08:01 am (UTC)(link)
He might also still be alive if he hadn't stupidly fled to this island, consequently endangering the Knights held hostage by Dimitris, as well as threatening the extremely tenuous armistice Dimitris had set into place by bringing Elena along with him.

Who knows what might be different had so many things not come to pass.
mydesigns: (pic#8344244)

[personal profile] mydesigns 2015-01-04 08:04 am (UTC)(link)
I don't think it's quite that simple, but ... thinking about hypotheticals doesn't solve anything.
socialgraces: (pic#6531057)

[personal profile] socialgraces 2015-01-05 04:49 am (UTC)(link)
[ she sighs, her anger quickly deflating as exhaustion sets in ] I assumed it couldn't be- simple, that is. It only seems the right thing to do, giving Elena the benefit of the doubt. [ which she still does, because there could be a lot of reasons she ended up with kyp on this island, and while francesca doesn't feel it's her place to confront elena directly, she doesn't have any qualms about hearing it second-hand from a reliable source. ] Did she tell you what her intentions were in freeing Kyp and coming to Andres?
mydesigns: (pic#7880168)

[personal profile] mydesigns 2015-01-05 05:07 am (UTC)(link)
I do know that she asked him to come. This was her plan. I think she thought that if she and Kyp could rescue Thomas, she could earn him some sort of redemption in the eyes of Wynn and the others.
socialgraces: (pic#2975684)

[personal profile] socialgraces 2015-01-05 05:15 am (UTC)(link)
Do you believe it was a plan she devised all on her own?
mydesigns: (pic#7880185)

[personal profile] mydesigns 2015-01-05 05:26 am (UTC)(link)
Kyp was the one who told me. Based on everything else I know and the interactions I've had with Elena, I think he was being honest. This was Elena's brainchild. My opinion is that he went along with it because he felt ... something for her. He wasn't the slightest bit interested in being redeemed.
socialgraces: (pic#2515390)

[personal profile] socialgraces 2015-01-05 05:34 am (UTC)(link)
Doesn't sound like it would have worked out in her favor either way, then.
mydesigns: (pic#7867190)

[personal profile] mydesigns 2015-01-05 06:07 am (UTC)(link)
Doesn't seem likely, no.
socialgraces: (pic#2975687)

[personal profile] socialgraces 2015-01-10 02:39 am (UTC)(link)
Well, as you said, thinking about hypotheticals doesn't solve anything. [ she offers him a tight smile, her expression abruptly impassive- detached, almost. she can save the private reflection for another time. ]
mydesigns: (pic#8257605)

[personal profile] mydesigns 2015-01-11 07:50 am (UTC)(link)
You're right. [he forces a smile back — but it comes off as exactly that.]
socialgraces: (pic#2975683)

[personal profile] socialgraces 2015-01-14 01:05 am (UTC)(link)
[ she considers his expression for a moment ] Will you walk with me, back to the castle? I wanted to discuss your promotion.
mydesigns: (Default)

[personal profile] mydesigns 2015-01-14 03:46 am (UTC)(link)
[he seems surprised, but—] Oh, sure.
socialgraces: (pic#2451116)

[personal profile] socialgraces 2015-01-14 04:31 am (UTC)(link)
[ and off they go~ to the castle ]