knightsoflegend | debriefing ♔ in the emptiness there's a solution

Entry tags:

debriefing ♔ in the emptiness there's a solution | just look within yourself for absolution

♬ locking up the sun- poets of the fall

WHO || Wynn, Buffy, Myri, Finnick, Spike, Gar, Archer, Des, Vi, Rafael, Fred Jr., Dumage, Mark, Rocket, open! [Closed]
WHAT || Andres Mission Debrief & Aftermath
WHERE || Knights HQ, lobby etc.
WHEN || September 18th [forward dated*]
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread, don't worry about maintaining tagging order.

There are plenty of missions that return to the castle a success - most of them, even. The defeated air of the solemn group that returns from their diplomatic mission to Andres Isle to hear the demands of dictator Dimitris Sarandis makes it quite clear that this wasn't one of those.

Starting with Sarandis' actual demands - for all Knights to withdraw from Andres under penalty of death, or for Wynn to offer his own head in return for Thomas' safe return - and ending with the unexpected, disturbing confession from Kat that she intended to stay behind on the island because she had "fallen in love with" the dictator, the events of the island made it very clear that Sarandis was cannily playing his hand to get the Knights where he wanted them.

Fred Jr. shoves open the doors with his unnatural strength, stalking in ahead of the group into the lobby. Whoever's on desk duty isn't going to have to roll a high wisdom check to see that these people are pissed... and distraught... and a myriad of other emotions on the bad end of the scale.

*I am changing the date of the briefing log and Andres log/live session to have taken place in September, to avoid us being in backdated hell forever, and to allow for a September squiring ceremony before apps are closed. Carry on... in the future!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ wheee round table room. buffy's gonna keep fairly close to myri, but probably ... with finnick between them since myri is by vi and finnick is presumably by myri. ]

[Spike's gonna seat himself near the door, not worrying too much about who he's near. He just wants to get this over with so he can drink himself into oblivion.]

[Des takes his usual position on the other side of the door (booze in hand), because he doesn't like sitting at the round table, okay.

Rocket, meanwhile, trails in and just... finds a corner where he can observe this entire situation like whaaat the fuck is even happening. #newbieproblems. also you guys look super culty right now.]

[finnick is taking the bottle back before he takes his seat. that was to borrow, not for keepsies, des. X( he just sit wherever, probably close to myri.]

[Archer lumbers in with the rest of them, nothing worth saying, really. They left to get information, and maybe extract a guy - instead they lost one of the few people Archer considers vaguely useful, and replaced her with a furball.]

[He plops down in a chair, his suit still riddled with dried blood and holes from various bullet wounds he suffered fighting soldiers - he hasn't bothered to change yet.]

[ gar looks like she wants to ask stiles more, but the group is all halfway down the hall, so instead she pulls herself away from stiles with nothing more than a small nod. as she passes by the door to jack's room, she slows for half a second, her eyes skidding that way, looking more lost than ever, before she squares her shoulders and pushes on to join the others.

gar moves to sit on the opposite side of the table from where most people are crowded up, as rafael slides in beside buffy. ]

[ as fred jr. stalks back and forth a second before finally settling in to sit by gar, dumage swings into the room, looking hella. she surveys their glum expressions as she makes her way to sit at fred's side. ] Well. I predict from your bright and chipper dispositions that things went swimmingly, per usual?

[ mark comes in behind her and grinds to a halt when he looks over them all, as if he's forgotten how to breathe. there's a tremor of apprehension in his voice as he shoots an almost panicked look over them all, giving rocket half a double take before once again looking at those present, and coming up with-- ] ... Where's Kat.

[Mark's presence seems to pull Myri from her daze.]

He did something to her. She... she said she wanted to stay with him- that she found her home there.

[She looks like she wants to vomit.]

No accounting for taste, really.

[meanwhile, there is no part of mark that seems to find any of this funny. in fact, he sounds as personally affronted and upset as myri as he says: ] Her home? [ his eyes dart to fred, who is just staring at the round table in front of him, brow creased. mark's legs seem to go out from underneath him, so it's lucky he's sitting in front of a chair, as he thumps down onto his butt in one. ] What does that... what does that mean?

[finnick keeps his tone flat as he rehashes] She thinks she's in love with Sarandis. She was willing to resign from the Knights, throw everything away to be with him. We tried reasoning and impassioned pleas, but ... [he shakes his head] It was no use.

I'm thinking we try killing the bastard next. [I mean, that had been the strategy Spike wanted to go with from the start but since diplomacy had unsurprisingly failed, it's looking better and better as an alternative plan.]

[Wow. Rocket can't keep his mouth shut for that. #SomeonePleaseHelpTheAndresians] And get the good half of Andres killed in the process?

[NEVER MIND THAT HE GOT INTO THIS MESS BECAUSE HE TRIED TO KILL DIMITRIS. LOOK HE DIDN'T COMPREHEND THE POLITICAL SITUATION AT THE TIME. AND NOW HE DOES.]

The same people who kept their mouths shut about you runnin' around the island thinkin' about the nuance of the best way to provoke a war? You're not gonna think about them even a little? It sucks about your friends, but bad things happen and that ain't no excuse to screw up everyone's lives just to fix yours.

[And that was your impassioned speech from a raccoon.]

Calm your tits, Rocket. Jesus. Obviously we care about the rest of the people otherwise we wouldn't have come home without her. [ vi can be patient, but her patience is incredibly gone, so she says all that but it's really sounds like shut your furry mouth or i with duct tape it shut for you. and she still calls him rocket. don't piss off the only person who treats you like a regular person, dude. her hand covers myri's and squeezes because she doesn't need to be an empath to know how hard this is for her. ]

The fact that we care about what happens to the people of that island is the only reason you're even here instead of stuck there so how about for one fucking second you show some god damn gratitude and maybe some fucking compassion that we just left two people we love behind and took you for the betterment of their island. Don't you dare accuse us of not thinking of the people trapped there when we have been fighting Sarandis for years.

[ that's not diplomacy, that's a straight up slap to the face with the word of the lord. now shut up. ]

[Phew. Archer was afraid he would have to agree with the dickbag vampire, or the happy fun time woodland creature, so he perks up when Vi dishes out some wisdom.]

Yeah, ya freakin gerbil - what she said. And, Oh yeah! [He glares at Spike] Why don't we all just keep oversimplifying the complex quagmire that is Shadowkind Geopolitics!?! Because THAT'LL friggin help! [Not because he isn't all for killing Sarandis - because he is - just to disagree with Spike.]

We came back because we didn't know what to do. [Myri just looks around the room slowly.]

If the next step was simple or easy we would have done it already. We don't know what to do. [Papa Wynn please come stop all the bickering. This is exhausting.]

[Sorry, Myri. It's not over yet.]

Gratitude? [Oh, that is IT.] You want gratitude?! Five minutes after meeting me you wanted me to run back to that facility and if it weren't for the freakin' beholders, nothin' woulda stopped Goldilocks over there from bustin' up the joint. [He points accusingly at Buffy.] I consider not shooting you all in the face for treating me like some kinda joke to be all the gratitude you deserve.

[Yeah, he's been... holding this in for awhile. The fact that he's managed to last this long is really a miracle. And now is not really the time, but he doesn't know where the hell he is, who these people are, and the only reason he hasn't bolted yet, is because he wants some damn answers, and maybe directions to somewhere AS FAR AWAY FROM EUROPE AS POSSIBLE.]

It ain't no wonder Lara's got stars in her eyes about some fairy tale prince- they need a hero. And she sure as hell didn't see any here.

[ dumage raises an eyebrow at the scene, unable to hide a smirk at the way the raccoon is provoking half the room.

but when wynn speaks up, it's from the arch of the hallway behind them, and it's clear that he must have heard some of that. exactly how much he caught is difficult to say, given that it's a long hallway and their voices were raised enough to cover even the sound of his approaching footsteps, but his commanding tone cuts through the altercation like a blade. ]

Yet I do.

[ gar straightens up in her seat, and fred finally stops staring at the table long enough to snap his head up in wynn's direction. rafael cuts a look at buffy beside him, while mark stares at the raccoon, shocked by his outbursts.

wynn walks slowly around the table, steps deliberate as he says: ] You've all faced difficult decisions on that island, and I am not here to pass judgment on any of them.

We are here so that I may decide how we will proceed, given all that has transpired.

[Des wants it on record that he didn't say a damn word, Wynn. He glances over at the taller man as he passes by him, and gives him a look that's... almost respectful. Given how they parted terms and how he still feels pretty abrasive about his reaction to Gar and Jack and how he rarely respects anyone, that's... impressive.

He follows Wynn's gaze all the way around and then turns to Buffy, since she was the one being needled here.]

Lay it out for him, Blondie.

[finnick probably shouldn't drink at the round table especially now that wynn is here ... but he crit failed his give a fuck roll i guess. and he is just SO TIRED OF EVERYONE SCREAMING AT EACH OTHER. so ... glug glug glug. this was a tag.]

[ She looks faintly indignant about Rocket's comment for the briefest of moments, but here's the thing: he's wrong. Knowing what she does about what they were trying to do, have been trying to do, keeps her from really letting it get to her.

Rather than respond to Rocket, she looks with surprising reverence to Wynn. The fact that she's not certain how much of the past 24 hours has been communicated to him just motivates her to ... give a pretty much full debrief. ]

When we landed, we heard Sarandis was having a party. We traded our clothes out and invited ourselves. Had made us watch the party while he played Barbie dolls with his people's lives. When we finally got a minute alone with him, he made it clear he would only exchange Thomas for Excalibur—so that he could take your head off with it.

[ She nods her head in a way like she's kind of feeling like that requires some kind of 'Sorry, sir' for even ... talking about decapitating Wynn. Awkward. ]

We demanded proof that Thomas was alive, and that was when Sarandis invited Kat to stay. He said that he'd show her, and she could bring confirmation to us. While she stayed overnight, the rest of us scoured the island to get try and gather more information. Finnick, Archer, and Rafael began exploring the slums that the Shadowkind inhabit there, Gar and Vi hung back at the hotel to wait for Kat's call, and the rest of us went into the woods to try and find the facility where we presumed he was keeping Thomas. [ Her jaw sets. ] Where he'd kept Myri and Spike.

Before we could get to the entrance, Rocket came running at us, fresh out of some half-cocked escape-plan, and being chased by a giant, freaky-looking eyeball. When it was dead, we asked that Rocket bring us back to the facility, and promised we'd help him escape. Instead, more of those eye-things came searching. There was no way to get to the facility without compromising ourselves.

[ She shakes her head sadly, feeling a bit like a failure for that. All their best intentions were wasted on an ungrateful raccoon who'd done nothing but impotently criticize since they'd rescued him; meanwhile, Myri and Spike's friends were still suffering in there, or worse. ]

We couldn't save any more of them, or Thomas.

When Vi and Gar talked to Kat, she was fine. She said Thomas was, too, so we just focused on regrouping. When we found the others in the slums, they were fighting Sarandis' soldiers, and some ... robot. I don't know what happened between when they left and when we found them on the roof.

[ She looks at Finnick like werwatey ??? Someone else can take it from there tbh. ]

We brought the robot back for the Hoard to look at.

Beholders.

[Des doesn't know anything about them, but he knows what they're called, okay.]

He had an army of Beholders.

[What's up with that????] And I'm still damn delighted that we added robots to this mix. We've upgraded from spiders.

[You'd have to be looking right down there to see it (idk insert unfeasibly high spot check here??), but Rocket's bared-teeth expression of discontent fades the instant Buffy mentions robots. He crosses his arms over his chest to try and hide the little metal bits on his sternum subtlety. No cyborgs accidentally contributing to Sarandis's robot agenda here.]

[finnick finishes off his bottle before taking buffy's cue. and loudly clearing his throat so des can get the hint that someone who isn't des is about to speak >:( BECAUSE IT HAPPENS SO RARELY.]

The robot was going to abduct a Shadowkind citizen. That was probably what he was specifically made for, if we're going to be honest. Their Shadowkind have horrible living conditions, and they're constantly disappearing, never to be heard from again. Sarandis is clearly doing something to them. Or with them. If we don't bring the war, there's going to be one eventually. You can't do that — can't make people live in such vast disparity and not expect a backlash. We didn't really get a chance to talk to many people, but, I believe if they had an opportunity for change, something to latch onto, they would take it.

Edited 2014-09-04 03:37 (UTC)

By the time we dealt with the soldiers, it was close to sunrise. More guards tried to stop Archer, Rafael, Spike and I at the airfield. They had searched the ship and found our weapons. While we dealt with the guards, Gar and the others went to collect Kat.

[ Turns to Gar. I guess Buffy is just steering this debriefing, here to give errybody cues. ]

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