knightsoflegend | london ♔ when the gusts came around to blow me down

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london ♔ when the gusts came around to blow me down

WHO || Everyone and their dog.
WHAT || In the aftermath of the attack, the Knights attempt to recover
WHERE || Knights HQ, etc.
WHEN || Dec. 1st-8th, 2015
HOW || Actionspam

As darkness falls all around the castle, the remaining Knights straggle out of their broken castle to survey the damage and count the dead – of which there are three: Rose Hathaway, Kali, and Killian Jones.

What began like any other day for most quickly descended into a nightmare, after Wynn and most of the Section Heads were lured out to downtown London to face a threat of dual dragons, who turned out to be only clockwork creations of deposed Andres dictator Dimitris Sarandis, robotic menaces that were nothing but a distraction from the real threat. Having rallied support from some of the Knights' other enemies, Dimitris sent an army of chipped creatures, Shadowkind, robots, and a giant tank to destroy the Knighthood's headquarters, dropping part of the roof down onto the training room and med center in the initial explosive blast. Sarandis' alliance with a mysterious hacker named One (who turned out to have been the man who invented technomagic in the first place along with Zero) not only downed the Knights' communications, but also their defensive and surveillance systems (with some help from a mentally dominated Eleven). Whatever preparations Zero had made for an attack by One were undermined by the sudden but inevitable betrayal of the humanized robot GlaDOS, who introduced a learning virus into the system before taking off, likely having made some kind of deal with One to restore her robotic form.

The Knights rallied under the remaining sect leaders – Lis'sa and Koraith – to make a plan to fight back and try to take down Dimitris, who sent a taunting message out across the Drakenet, announcing his intentions to leave the castle as a smoking crater littered with corpses. Fearing that the attack might also be meant to target Myri and Vi's children, a group moved them to the Round Table Room, perhaps the most secure location in the building. The attack was a smokescreen of sorts, something Vi realized, taking Elena, Des, and Faith O'Keefe with her to the library in hopes of saving the elven mage, Lazarus, whose blood the villains required to unleash the nightmare god Malaak'a upon the world. The library, however, was already in shambles, thanks to a fire-slinging red half-dragon who had confronted some Knights there (and led Kate Beckett to discover something strange about herself...). Des remained in the hallway to confront a demon, in the same place where Skye had nearly died to an ifrit pyrokineticist named Serafina, one of Dimitris' chipped experiments. Sawyer Kelly and Alex Karamazov butted heads when it came down to sparing the enslaved ifrit, but in the end, Alex made the decision by putting a bullet in her head when Mars wouldn't act – much to Sawyer's horror. Things went to hell pretty quickly when the villainous Mind Master drove into the library on a motorcycle and proceeded to almost slaughter Vi, Elena, Faith, and Gar, making vicious comments to the former about going to see her deceased husband again. When Elena grabbed the Mind Master, she abruptly vanished, and Elena's whereabouts remain unknown. The Mind Master proceeded to make her way into Lazarus' secret chambers beneath the library, slitting his throat and collecting the magic that coursed through his veins in lieu of blood, the lasting effect of his having survived the ritual that sealed Malaak'a away in the first place.

Meanwhile, downtown, while Carol Danvers and Clark Kent played superhero around the city, Sam and Buffy ran into the archangels Raphael and Zerachiel, who were assisting the wounded of London, and Buffy cut a deal with Raphael after he cautioned her that some sort of big demon was also involved in the attack. In exchange for allowing Hell's forces further freedom of movement (the necessary cost to maintain the balance of the universe), Raphael transported Buffy right into the middle of the fray. The demon already gone, the angel advised her to go and protect the children – which turned out to be necessary indeed, as Sarandis had sent chipped, invisible raptors after the babies. Will Graham nearly died in the attack, but no children – or dogs – fell prey to the beasts.

Outside, a number of Knights armed to the teeth with grenades, rocket launchers, and flame throwers took on a towering seventy-foot tall Colossus that was ripping the castle apart. However, when Steve Rogers cut its head off with an expertly thrown shield toss, the monstrosity fell into the front of the castle with all of its three hundred tons, (and on fire, courtesy of Baal) and many barely escaped with their lives. Wolverine was the only person trapped in the ensuing rubble, but Nathan Young and Amy Pond dug him free as his body healed up the massive wounds suffered.

A strike team was sent out to take on Dimitris in his tank, and Spike and Dean drove Archer's car straight into the oversized military vehicle as a distraction, while Cora Hale, Rose, and Kali disabled the tank and its weapons and broke their way inside. What they found, however, was merely a projection of Dimitris taunting them, as Cora's werewolf senses alerted her immediately to the fact that no one was actually inside but them. Too late, the girls tried to escape – as the tank exploded in a volley of shrapnel and gout of flame, that also caught Christos La Krail and Grant Ward off guard, who had just arrived at the gate so that Ward might meet with Wynn for his official Knighthood interview. As everyone scrabbled to save the injured, a bag of grenades that Kali had dropped caused a secondary explosion, that took Rose and Kali's lives. Dean and Spike proceeded to look insane when the archangel Michael showed up to collect the souls of the dead, and they were the only two who could see him, but Cap stood his ground anyway with them. Dean angrily refused to give up on Rose's life, despite the fact that the death of her bondmate Lissa less than twenty four hours prior had left her connection to life weakened already. Michael cautioned him against doing 'something stupid', as Dean stalked off with her body.

Meanwhile, after realizing Zero's role in all this and helping return him to his senses so that he and Skye could restore communications and defenses, Lila Zacharov-Gray took off with Alex to the upper floor to find Amara. They discovered the homo magi using her powerful magic to keep the ceiling from collapsing into the entire castle, and while she entreated them to evacuate, Lila refused to leave her, prompting Amara to use her most powerful spell to repair the structural damage that was threatening to capsize the castle, at the cost of alerting her father to her exact location.

Just when it seemed like all might be well, Emma Swan, cursed by Poseidon to turn into a flesh-eating kelpie if she wasn't in water by sundown, came across the body of Lazarus and found her monstrous hunger awakened. Dissatisfied with the bloodless corpse, she decided to make a meal of Killian Jones, magically teleporting him into the pond behind the Knighthood, where in spite of Faye and Alex's best efforts, Killian was drowned. Luckily, however, they prevented Emma from eating her true love.

The other Knights fought bravely against basilisks, clockwork mages, and giant scorpions, while trying to assist the wounded, rescue the trapped, and do everything they could to protect the Knights' assets from falling into Dimitris' hands. With the smoke cleared, their home – thanks to Amara – remains standing, but the damage to it is substantial and won't be repaired overnight, even with magic at their disposal. More lasting will be the emotional scars of watching the only home some of them even remember ever having broken around them, their illusion of safety shattered, and their peace violated – not to mention the looming possibility of the Nightmare God being freed.

[ You are now free to make top posts for your characters in the wake of the attack. These top posts may include multiple sections (with different instructions for whether you want them to be open to multiple threads for that scene or closed to a single thread with multiple participants), that deal with anything directly after the events of the event post, and in the week following. I recommend using letters or numbers to indicate each section, so that those responding can put what they are doing in the subject line, to help others quickly know where to go to jump into any single threads.

There will be a thread about Wynn's return and a subsequent Drakenet post addressing IC-ly where people will live. Those with rooms in the Dragon's Tongue, Dragon's Hide, Dragon's Hoard, and Dragon's Fire wing will find their rooms almost entirely undamaged and still livable, but there is a percentage chance that anyone in the Dragon's Light or squire rooms will have their room destroyed. Please ask me for each of your characters this applies to and I will let you know the extent of the damage. Your characters are free to try searching the rubble for their personal effects – just include it in their top post with a search check please, and I'll let you know how much of their stuff is recoverable. Rebuilding efforts will commence within the week, so if your character has any way of contributing to putting the castle back together, that's also top post fodder. There is limited space in the Knights' downtown London office for some Knights to stay, while others may have their own apartments, etc. Other options may open up eventually. If your character is no longer living in the castle, please use your top post to establish this! I will put up top posts for each potential resurrection attempt, as rezzes take multiple days IC-ly to even be attempted.

Destroyed/heavily damaged sections of the castle: front hall/lobby (the Colossus is still there)/stairs, but there are currently ladders to access the second floor; the Dragon's Light wing/office/small library/bathrooms; the chapel; the med center; the training room; the armory; the bowling alley; the piano room; billiards room; parlor; the Dragon's claws bedrooms; parts of the dining hall; the library is intact but heavily damaged, many of the books destroyed by fire. After the first couple days, additional doors have been added to the castle at the far west end of the horizontal squire bedrooms hall, and beside the Dragon's hoard wing to enter the building, and a door has been installed at the southwest corner of the dining hall to allow people to cut through it to circumvent the Colossus still taking up the lobby and blocking access to the main hall. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I've known many Knights in our time, who went through a resurrection. It is a unique experience for all of them, and we performed the ritual without knowing whether or not it was truly what you desired.

In other words, whatever you feel or don't feel, there is no one who can tell you that it is wrong, because there is no right way to react to such an unparalleled disruption of self.

It is. [That much she can say without hesitation.] What I wanted. It's just... a lot.

[As in it's not just the rez, it's everything else. It's the severing of the bond. It's not knowing if what she felt that night is going to resurface. Worrying about Dean. Worrying about her own ability to not hesitate. Realizing she has to figure out who she is without the bond and of course. The silence.]

I could do with a few less of those disruptions but... [She does take the time to really think about this, like she wants to know that her words will be the truth before she can meet Wynn's gaze and say it aloud.] I'm okay.... all things considered?

Do you know if you require time before being reassigned to fieldwork, or if you feel comfortable in your ability to do so?

No. [Again without hesitation.] No, benching me. I work better when I'm out there doing things. It's the, sitting around and waiting that I'm not good with.

[It was at least, a very honest answer, if not a completely reassuring one.]

I did have... one request though? [Hesitant to ask it and yet, since her conversation with Des she hasn't been able to get it out of her head.] I thought maybe, you might consider... assigning Dean to the Talisman Mission? [Not that it can really be called that anymore, but still.]

[ his expression betrays nothing as he studies her, before asking levelly ] And why do you believe Sir Winchester suited well to this mission in particular?

[She considers that for a long moment then looks directly at Wynn, Rose being true to her promise that she would always be honest with him.]

I don't know that he is. [Because she knows she can't really be objective where Dean's skills are concerned. (Lmao Wis Nat 20? What even)] I can tell you that he's the best tracker any of us have ever seen. That he can see creatures the rest of us can't and that saved us in Andres and he's faced things a lot worse than what we're going to be up against and he's still standing.

[Which is all true and her speech about Why Dean Is Great could go on but none of that is why she's raised this with Wynn.]

But I'm asking you to consider it because... I won't leave this mission and if I had a choice between walking into danger with or without him. I'd choose with every time. [At least she's not looking at him like: Please Daddy Please. If anything, she's oddly calm and mature in the way she's approaching this which, is something of a foreign concept to Rose.]

I see. [ and he does, clearly, and isn't dismissive of the fact. ] I will certainly take it into consideration then.

[She nods, grateful at least, for that much.] It's all I can ask.

[Content it seems to just leave it at that.]

I don't know if now is really a good time but... Paris?

I'd like to hear your account of things.

[Trying to keep it professional for the sake of separating emotion from the mission. (WS 27).]

We met up with Sir Lehane and started tracking the Vampires in the hopes of finding Sir Magnus when, she found us. I guess, she got attacked and her phone was broken but, she was okay when she caught up to us... [(WS 23.)]

We found a couple of the vampires that Sir Magnus' team were tracking, managed to question them but they didn't seem to know much and I was inclined to believe them. [Which is Rose for: I was a scary MoFo.]

They did mention this group of Elders who we thought might have some information to help us track down the ones responsible for... [Nope. Not calling them by their formal titles.] What happened to Lissa and Max. Vampires. Old as dirt types - [You didn't Knight her for her eloquence.] - being led by some Lesbian Vampire Queen?

[Rose looking to Wynn to see of that seems to register a reaction.] Carmilla?

I am familiar with the Carmilla, in theory. I have never had occasion to meet her in person, but she has ruled over the vampires of that nation for some time, if it is as you say.

They weren't even really sure... Could be she's like, a scary story they use to keep all the baby vamps in line. [Lifting her shoulder in a shrug.] But it seemed like these Elders might be a good source of information. The way they talked, they have rules. Ones that probably frown on bringing unwanted attention to their kind. Might make them more likely to talk to us.

And you believe they would have information on this attack in particular?

No. [Well she was honest.] But I think it's a better place to start than sticking me in the middle of Paris and hoping I recognize somebody.

We have to also consider the risks of causing a diplomatic incident with the reigning vampires of France.

[He says to the Dhampir who has... not a lot of love for Vampires on a good day.

Shh. Spike & Davin don't count. #hypocrite.]

Well we can't just - [But she stops herself (WS 22). Rose slowly putting a lid on the emotion that stirs inside of her.

When she tries again, it's with a controlled calm that thrums with the tension of her underlying anger.] He had to watch - [Not me.] her die. They were in love, Max and Lissa and those Vampires? They could see it and they took pleasure in making them watch each other die.... not because, they needed to do it. It wasn't about survival. It was fun for them.

[Managing to seem a little more in control as she speaks again;]

If the reigning Vampires of France are okay with that? Do we really want diplomatic relations with them?

[ there's sympathy in his expression at her words, understanding. ] The alternative is that we make the call to commit genocide on their entire clan, hold them all accountable for the actions of a few.

Beginning a war with the vampires is not something to be taken lightly. I'm not suggesting that we don't proceed - merely that we do so cautiously.

[She can't answer immediately because honestly? The way Rose sees it, if the Elders seek to protect the ones responsible? Then maybe they should be at war with this clan. Nothing short of condemnation on their part likely to earn them the presumption of innocence as far as Rose is concerned. She can however see what Wynn is trying to say and keeps her comments to herself, nodding her understanding even if it's obvious she's holding back. (Wis 18, WS 19)

Rather than push the point further, her gaze shifts back to the painting that had previously held her attention, Rose staring at it for a long moment before speaking again.]

And what about Sarandis? [Looking back to Wynn.] We are going to go after him, right?

Dimitris Sarandis will be paying for his actions here. The highest price.

[Rose holds Wynn's gaze for a long moment, her face reflecting little emotion which is perhaps, in and of itself, saying more than her anger could have (Will Save Nat 20). She might have a tendency to hit first and ask questions later but even Rose has never see Death as the answer but after everything? For Spike and Myri. For putting Kyp in their lives and the destruction he caused. For the attacks?]

Good. [Gaze drifting away once more and it seems like now at least, she appears to breathe easier.] Is there anything else you wanted to discuss?

[Cause she'd pretty much come and said what she felt she needed to tell him. Also not, doing an overflow thread cause I figure this is wrapping.]

That will be all, Sir Hathaway. [ wrap works for me! \o/ ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

london ♔ when the gusts came around to blow me down

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