andres ♔ but what he told me last night lays on me like lead

[affianced]

♬ dear ophelia - abney park

WHO || Buffy, Myri, Finnick, Spike, Kat, Gar, Archer, Des, Rafael, Fred Jr., Vi, Rocket, Lara, Dimitris  [Closed]
WHAT || A diplomatic mission to Andres Isle goes about as successfully as one would guess
WHERE || Andres Isle
WHEN || August 15th  [backdated]
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread.

Even the briefing for this mission went well, with Wynn walking in on Dragon's Claw Jack Chessing macking on Sir Gar, in direct violation of his vows of, er, abstinence, both romantically and physically.   Following the briefing, and the team's attempts to make Wynn see reason in the face of Jack's resignation, they gathered up a large amount of weapons of all kinds into their private plane and took off for Andres Isle.  

Upon arrival, they found the island did not match up to their expectations.  Instead of fields of torture, they found themselves in a very upscale part of the city, full of affluent manor houses close to the palace.   They spun a cover story upon learning about a party there, using Finnick's celebrity on Andres to get access to the festivities.  

Inside, they met Dimitris Sarandis, Prime Minister of Andres Isle, who invited them to stay for the party, which was being thrown in honor of Countess Lara Tamon, who had helped Jack, Spike and Myri escape from their torment on the Isle.  They took the opportunity to chat up the local aristocracy, picking up the vibe that most of them had either benefited from Dimitris' rise to power, or were too afraid to stand up to him.  Spike talked to the Marquesse de Lyons, and learned that her son, Percy, had been a friend of the late Prince's, and had died shortly after voicing his belief that Sarandis had framed the Andres family in order to seize power.   Archer was shocked to find his manservant Woodhouse employed at the palace, and extra annoyed to learn that he didn't remember him.  For once, Archer found a reason to care about liberating the Andresians... if not purely for selfish reasons.

The party itself was to announce the breaking of the betrothal that had long stood between Lara and the late Prince, even after his death, a blemish on the reputation of the Tamon family that Sarandis sought to rectify by arranging a new betrothal: between Lara and her childhood friend, Lord Michael de Collines (aka Michael Collins).  Neither of them seemed particularly thrilled about the arrangement.  Lara managed to sneak a message to Myri to meet her that night under the bridge.

Following the announcement, the gang went to speak to Sarandis in private and find out his demands for the safe return of Sir Thomas Bancroft.  He wasted no time in making clear his position - he painted the Knight's vigilante attitude towards policing the world as the ultimate evil, and warned that no more Knights would set foot on Andres, lest they be killed.  He also demanded that Wynn himself bring the artifact Excalibur to the island to give to him - so that Dimitris could behead Wynn in exchange for Thomas' life.  The demands were met with outrage by the Knights, and in the face of their fear that Thomas was not even still alive, Sarandis agreed to let one of them stay the night to speak with the Dragon's Claw.   He specified that Kat be the one to stay, and despite protests, she agreed, and convinced Gar to let her stay.  

The other Knights headed back into town, where Gar, Fred Jr., and Vi headed to the nearby hotel to wait to hear from Kat, and be ready in case they should need to reach the palace quickly.  The others headed to the bridge across the river, where they met with Lara and her friend Lord Dana Green, another of her childhood friends.  They explained the situation on the Isle, and how many of the younger generation wished to see things returned to the way they'd been before, but the challenges they faced in doing so seemed almost insurmountable to them.  Lara expressed her fears that toppling Sarandis' rule would only wind up putting Andres in an even worse position.  They also related how Dimitris had created programs and taxes that had basically banished Shadowkind to the other side of the river and left them all but destitute, all while pumping more and more money into the coffers of the rich, particularly those serving on his Parliament.   She secured the Knights' promise to help in every way they could, and Myri asked her to show the way back into the woods where she'd found them before.

Finnick, Archer, and Rafael crossed the bridge into the Shadow village to do some recon, and spoke with a local tavern owner/dwarf who related that people down here were turning up missing more and more often - likely to feed Dimitris' experiments in the woods.  They seemed largely disheartened, but could potentially be talked into fighting if giving the means to do so.

In the woods, the others ran across a strange talking raccoon named Rocket, who was running for his life from a beholder, which the party managed to take down.  They discovered that Rocket had escaped from captivity in Dimitris' labs, and he was none too happy at the prospect of going back, even to show them where it was.  They argued briefly over the best course of action - whether the break out would be the best or worse time to try to make their way into the lab, particularly given that Dimitris had Kat as well now. 

Comments

[nepotism]

Just how many people got hurt in that little shoot out of yours anyway?

[graveflowers]

[ her hand flutters across her stomach before she answers, relatively blasé. ] Four soldiers and a robot ninja.

[nepotism]

Which I'm not gonna complain about... but I meant more on our side.

[witchwoman]

At least four. I couldn't see what was happening on the roof very well, but I felt Buffy's injury. And then the three of us. [She gestures to Vi and Gar. And none for the boys basically]

[graveflowers]

I think Italia got shot, too. [ she shrugs though, he seemed fine. ] Archer can pretty much deflect bullets at this point.

[65]

Buffy was impaled but she seems fine. [shrug. doesn't bring up how robocop got him with one of his blades for 24 dmg. nope. why would he ever. but he does casually run his hand against the injury to check if it's bleeding or not bcuz he ... totally forgot about it. yeahhhh adrenaline numbing everything.]

[nothingsodivine]

A robot ninja? [DES HISSES THIS THROUGH HIS TEETH, BECAUSE WHAT. EVERYONE APPEARS TO BE NOT DEAD, SO LET'S JUST GET BACK TO THE REAL POINT.] Is Sarandis trying to get every stamp on his villain card. He's got the island, the Nazi Germany motif, the creepy science experiments, the mind control plot, and now we're just gonna throw robots into it?

[He throws his hands up.] Jesus. I'd rather deal with Iscariot. At least they're straightforward.

[witchwoman]

I'd rather be done with all of them. But the encounter with the robot isn't... something we want to advertise to him. [plz stop talking about it des. HE COULD HEAR YOU.]

[graveflowers]

[ srsly des you're next to an intercom. vi fidgets impatiently, looking through the gate for kat to mysteriously appear. ten seconds was too long to wait WHERE IS SHE. ]

[65]

Then why did you come? [he gives des the same flat resigned stare he usually saves for archer. REALLY THO YOU'RE GOING TO DO THIS SHIT IN FRONT OF THE INTERCOM??? help us jesus. help us tom cruise.]

[nothingsodivine]

To ruin your morning. [He hates you all. And looks at Fred Jr like "seriously fuck these guys," because wow we were just getting updated. AND YOU'RE THE ONES WHO BROUGHT UP NINJA ROBOTS. OKAY.]

[shootfirst]

[ ♬ under my thumb - the rolling stones

speaking of ruined mornings

actually someone's doesn't sound very ruined at all. in fact, there's the distant sound of laughter as the doors of the palace in the distance are pushed open and a small group of people emerge with the lazy, easy air of rich people taking a casual stroll. one of them is instantly recognizable as dimitris, but it might take a moment for anyone to recognize the others. the baron and baroness von eckridge from last night's party are two of them, but the fourth - the girl in the white dress, clinging to dimitris' arm and laughing at his comments as if she doesn't have a care in the world, can't be kat.

they stop at the bottom of the steps, and converse for a moment, far out of earshot, before dimitris points off in the direction of the garden and the baron and baroness head off in that direction. he nods to kat, and she starts towards the gate with a smile on her face, at a tiny jog. heels click against the drive as she approaches the gate and sees everyone, where her uncharacteristic appearance is only more obvious. dimitris watches this all from a distance for a moment, with that insufferable smirk on his face, as always. ]

Oh, hey guys!

[65]

[WERWATEY????????

that is finnick's face. he is the essence of werwatey.]

[nothingsodivine]

[Des's jaw drops and after a second or two of quiet fish gaping, he hisses under his breath.]

I'm gonna blow his brains out the back of his fucking skull.

[And then, louder, in a conversational, smiling tone so Dimitris can't see him sweat.] Look at you, Tex. Did you and Sarandis have makeovers at your little slumber party?

[graveflowers]

[ what the actual fuck. kat is a pod-person. vi is so perplexed, but she manages words and a hesitant, confused smile at pod-kat. ]

Hey... sweetie... You're ready to go home, right?

[shootfirst]

[ luckily her listen check sucked and she didn't even hear that either. instead she glances over at des with a little smirk ] ... Something like that. It's not like I packed an overnight bag. He sent out for something for me.

[ and then she turns to vi. ] Actually, about that.

[witchwoman]

[Myri's eyes widen. First thought? Everything is once again doppelgangers. But this would be a terrible doppelganger to 1.) be such a weird version of Kat and 2.) not come home with them??? No, this is something else entirely and it's not okay. NOT OKAY.]

Kat... [She moves towards her former mentor and reaches out, as if to touch her, but there's a gate in the way so her hand falls uselessly to her side.] Don't do this. Whatever happened here, just... Come home?

[Who even knows if diplomacy works on whatever is happening right now, but Myri is gonna do her best to be r e a l l y convincing (diplomacy 30)]

[65]

Yeah, come on Kat. Don't be crazy, we need you. [DIPLOMACY NAT 20 MOTHERFUCKER. 41 total. come back to us :'( ]

[shootfirst]

[ kat looks really really confused for a moment, the smile melting away as she looks between them as if she's struggling to figure out what the heck they're saying. she glances back over her shoulder, and then back to them. ] I don't think you guys understand.

Maybe this is going to sound... [ her eyes dart to finnick ] crazy to you, but that doesn't change what it is.

I think I finally am home. And-- [ she frowns at myri, and then gar, who is still stunned speechless and pale and gripping fred jr.'s wrist like she's going to wrench it off ] you guys have been great, really. I'm always going to think you like family, but...

But I've found something I never was even sure I believed in. That's not the kind of thing you just walk away from.

[witchwoman]

I-- [Wow, Myri looks like someone punched her right in the gut, because she gets that feeling. All she ever wanted was to find her home, and then she found the Knights and everything felt right. She can't imagine why Kat would ever think that could be here with this man, but she struggles to find the strength to push aside Kat's comments. Home is the most important thing to find. She had only thought that it would be with them.

Now- this isn't to say that she doesn't believe something else is going on. She's mentally squinting hard to see if she can tell if Kat is trying to tell them something without telling them something (sense motive 26).]

Kat, please... [She's not even trying to be diplomatic this time, but the stress of being here, the fight from earlier, and now this? A lump forms in her throat, making her voice crack around the plea.] We are your family. We're your home.

[graveflowers]

[ myri is totally right, they're family. which is why kat's pod-personing is so personally affronting. well played, sarandis. and diplomacy is all well and good, but it's not working and vi is not diplomatic. ] Snap the fuck out of it, Kathryne!

[ whoops. someone crit failed her will save. ]

1/-idk man

[shootfirst]

[ myri actually gets no such vibe from kat at all. she seems conflicted about something, but it seems to be more some kind of internal confusion than some kind of scheme on her part. she seems completely invested in everything she's saying, disturbingly so. ]

Snap out of what? You know... I knew this was going to happen. Everybody tries so hard to talk me into opening myself up to exactly this, and when I do? Suddenly it's un-fucking-believable that I might actually fall for somebody. Suddenly I'm the psycho!

2/-

[nepotism]

[ wow what a timely crit fail, fred. the dice know. at those words, something in fred snaps, and he wrenches his arm away from gar, surging forward towards the gate, where he slams his fist against the bars hard (atk 30, dmg 10), which does little more than hurt his fist a lot really. he looks overcome with rage, and he looks beyond kat, pointing at dimitris in the distance. ] You sick sonuvabitch! Are you standing back there because you know we're going to tear you apart limb from limb the second we get our hands on you?! Come open this gate and man the fuck up! You and me! Right now. You're dead, you hear me?!

3/3

[usurping]

[ dimitris saunters forward at that, still looking like this is the Best Day Ever. :) he comes up next to kat, and places one hand on her shoulder, looking between them all. ] Are these ruffians hassling you, my dear? [ he clucks his tongue, looking down his nose at fred ] How distasteful.

You'd think Wynn could afford basic obedience school for his whelps.

[65]

[FOR FUCK'S SAKE KATHRYNE. LOVE IS NOT AN OPEN DOOR. KAT'S LOVE IS LIKE MADAGASCAR IN FUCKING PANDEMIC THE DOORS CLOSE AS SOON AS SOMEONE FIVE COUNTRIES OVER COUGHS. everyone knows that.

finnick's not even gonna … try to stop fred. but he will attempt to clean up after him.]

The idea that you would fall for somebody isn't what's unbelievable, Kat. It's that you're willing to leave everything you know behind after spending one night with this … person. [yep. this person. nice save, finnick.]