briefing ♔ just caught in the undertow

[wynn]

  Au Revoir - OneRepublic

WHO || Wynn, Buffy, Myri, Finnick, Spike, Kat, Gar, Archer, Des, Rafael, Fred Jr., Dumage  [Closed]
WHAT || Andres Mission Briefing
WHERE || Knights HQ, lobby etc.
WHEN || August 14th [forward dated]
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread, don't worry about maintaining tagging order.

Ceding to the demands of psychotic despots isn't exactly something the Knights prefer to do.

Perhaps this is why Wynn has taken his sweet time in arranging the group that Dimitris Sarandis has insisted on speaking with, the 'only ones' to whom he has agreed to deliver his demands for the safe and secure return of Dragon's Claw Sir Thomas Bancroft.  The meeting is finally scheduled, and as promised, Rafael has flown in from America to participate, picked up by Des en route to the castle.  Kat, Myri, Buffy, Finnick, Archer, and Spike had one of Myri's 'family failboat dinners' together, and as such, have wandered out of the dining room together in the direction of the lobby after Buffy received a text from Rafael that they were there.  Raf and Des are just pushing open the doors as they make their way across the tiled floor.

Comments

[slay]

[ It feels impossible.

The fact that most of this is informed by knowing that she died and got replaced by someone who’s now here and squired and able to do exactly what she can do doesn’t help, because that’s not really the kind of issue that this conversation can work through.

But it’s hardest because the Knights are all she’s ever known. She hardly had a life at all before she joined them—at least, not one that she can remember. A new direction might sound easy to Des, who’s lived 400 years, but to Buffy, it’s uprooting herself from the only security she has and asking her to go against her constant.

And yet she’s still not sure he’s wrong.

The sense of alienation has only grown worse, but it was there before she even met Faith. That question of whether she’s the same as them, or if this isn’t fitting the way it should. The trial had been what started it all, really. That’s what makes it feel like it’s on her most of all.

It’s not that the Knighthood is different from what it was when she joined, but she is.

Her eyes squeeze shut and she raises her hands like excuse me I need a minute because this is a lot at once and it feels very pressure-y. She’s feeling pressured. ]

In theory, yeah. But we’re supposed to believe the same thing. Value the same things. Be on the same team. Does this look same team-y to you?

[ And like how do you even quit is this like the mafia. Do you have to pull an Elena and hit the ground running. Wow that makes it pretty apparent that she’s actually seriously considering this that her thought process went that far. ]

[romanticidal]

It has been very seldom that I have seen your team agree on much. But the things they do believe in - these are the same for all of you. They are strengths that you share.

The things you have disagreed on do not change that.

[nothingsodivine]

And he hasn't thrown you out yet. [Des's opinion on this is just so complicated. HE DOESN'T LIKE PEOPLE FEELING LIKE THEY HAVE TO CURB THEIR EMOTIONS AND DESIRES. LIFE IS TOO SHORT. ETC.]

But Fluffy's right. You've been cut off from Wynn and his rules so long, it's hard being back here, wondering if you fit in with everything. Once we're all back in the game, we'll know what to do. We always do.

And after that... [He shrugs.] You'll figure out what you really need.

[slay]

[ She doesn’t fit in anywhere. Her gaze drops at Des’ acknowledgment of her uncertainty about it. That’s a hard piece to swallow because it hits so close to the root of the problem.

Her spot’s been taken.

The space she filled, the role she had, the things that she did for the knights—there’s someone else to do them, now. There’s no way for her to fit in with everything.

Being gone, she worries, won’t help. It’ll do the opposite. She’s never had an extended stay at the castle, not truly. No more than a couple months at once, and she’s moved rooms since the first time. It doesn’t feel like home base to her. Being away just gives her more time to feel disconnected from it.

On one hand, she feels like if she’s already questioning, she doesn’t have much to lose if Wynn decides to kick her out for being a li’l bitch. On the other hand, she doesn’t really want confirmation that she doesn’t belong here because it will sting. ]

You’re right.

[ To Des. No matter how she’s feeling now, it won’t change the fact that Andres is the next logical step. The rest can wait. But she looks to Rafael and nods, taking a breath to steady herself. ]

I’ll talk to him.

[romanticidal]

[ that brings a little smile to his eyes, and he releases her and motions to des to come with ] Molto bene. We will be right outside, carina.

[slay]

Well out of blast range.

[ Natch.

Her nose crinkles, but she turns back in towards the rest of the round table room and takes a deep breath and

jumps back into the Myri and Wynn thread?? ]

[nothingsodivine]

[Des watches her go with a concerned expression.]

Sometimes I think she belongs here even less than we do.

[romanticidal]

That, or they need someone like her.